Produced by Max Allyn, the new On My Own EP by Lexie Rose is a five-song collection representing an exponential leap in artistic growth over Rose’s initial offerings on platforms like SoundCloud. Her songwriting owes much to the singer/songwriter talents of performers like Fiona Apple and Elliot Smith, but there are other influences at work here and they are transmuted through Rose’s individualistic sensibility and come out as her own twist on recognizable subjects and forms.
She has enlisted a cadre of top-flight musicians to assist her in making these songs pop and they ably support her art without ever, even unintentionally, deflecting the spotlight from where it belongs. Rose aims to offer use intimate and highly personal material while also avoiding any obscurity that might prevent it from connecting with listeners on their own level. She is wildly successful and On My Own definitely sets the table for Rose to have an impressive 2018.
Lexie Rose’s EP begins with the memorable song “20 Weeks”. It’s a track introducing many of the dominant elements that make On My Own such a bracing listening experience and shows a songwriting template she follows for much of the EP. Rose shows an inclination for scene setting in this song before developing her stripped down introductory ideas into something much grander. “20 Weeks” favors an unusual pulse for its percussion, as do a number of songs on this EP, and it gives the material a different taste from more mundane efforts in this vein. “Join Me” moves her closer to the edge than the earlier track and some of her electronic inclinations come through, manifested as an affinity for meaningful atmospherics, without ever overwhelming the core fundamentals holding the song together.
Wrong by Lexie Rose
“Wrong” moves even closer to that aforementioned edge and relies heavily on a theatricality that Rose does so well, but there’s also a lot of concentration put into making the vocal arrangement stick in listener’s memories. It definitely does. Lexie Rose’s vocal talents are truly extraordinary and this cut puts a brighter spotlight on it than we’ve previously experienced. There’s more of a ballad feel pervading some of “That’s Why” while other sections traffic in interesting rhythms that frame her vocals in a very dramatic way.
Lexie Rose Will Serenade You To Fandom
“On My Own” finishes the EP with the sort of impressive statement you’d expect from this talented newcomer and expands her songwriting and performing range even further than we’ve heard from the previous four tracks. The immense artistry that goes into making this EP work is clearly the product of a first-class talent beginning to bloom in earnest and we can only wonder what she’ll do with a full-length album and how much better these songs will be in live performance. Lexie Rose has hit a grand slam with this first EP and she’ll undoubtedly enlarge her audience with this release.
URL: https://www.lexierosemusic.com/
SOUNDCLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/lexierosesongs/sets/on-my-own/s-iBvmo
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/lexieroses/
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3zCZcf2i2vEHHjRYIPZA90?si=GX8bqH5UQnekiDKXeioqiA
-Photo Credit Sarvey T Rector
-review by Laura Dodero
