The Art of Forgetting
The time is now for Caroline Rose. Their last record, Superstar, was released on March 6, 2020. The record was critically acclaimed and positioned Rose as the next big breakthrough in music. Needless to say, the resulting pandemic grinded all momentum to a halt while at the same time throwing Rose’s personal life into turmoil. The result of that turmoil is the fuel that fired the creation of their latest album, The Art of Forgetting. With The Art of Forgetting, Rose took on the dual role of writer and producer. The album encapsulates the feeling of experiencing recent memories, having them turn into old ones and then ultimately forgetting those memories altogether. There is a romantic nature within the sonic landscape of this record. Tape effects and loops emulate the feeling of aging while the juxtaposition of modern acoustic-electronic textures, like lo-fi tape next to hi-fi granular synths result in some of their most mature and honest work to date.
Stylistic shifts and personal reinvention have become par for the course for this New York singer-songwriter. But on their new album, they turn uncharacteristically self-reflective.
For her fifth album 'The Art Of Forgetting' Caroline Rose is looking inwards, trying to pick up the pieces.
Caroline Rose may have begun their career making music steeped in contemporary folk and Americana, but when they dove deep into left-field pop with their witty and satisfying 2018 album Loner, they found themselves at once joining the reinvention sweepstakes while bemusedly commenting on it from the indie margins, a theme examined with even greater focus on 2020's Superstar, which sounded like a bid for a wider audience and an acknowledgement of the complex rules of the game.
Back in the early days of 2020, Caroline Rose (who uses they/them pronouns) was one of the many artists who tragically found their album releases overshadowed by the pandemic.