Non Exclsuive, LP – Blood in Glass Vinyl
Tracklist:
1. Sixteen Ways
2. Anything
3. Had It Wrong
4. Saltwater Girl
5. Feel Light
6. DOA
7. Sleeping Night And Day
8. Molotov In Stereo
9. Come Back
10. Song For A Horse
“This album is about having to focus our collective energies on the small things around that we
can control to find joy. A distraction from the the larger systemic problems that feel so
overwhelming and are so very out of our collective hands… for now…”
Love As Projection is the new album by Frankie Rose, her fifth studio LP and second for Night
School following the reissue of her interpretation of The Cure’s Seventeen Seconds. Frankie Rose
has forged an enviable musical legacy, from playing with bands like Crystal Stilts and The Vivian Girls
but on Love As Projection she takes a bold step into electronic pop production. A sumptuous recorded
statement, it dances in ecstasy and broods on the tumult of the western world’s decay in equal
proportion. At the heart of the album is glowing, confident songwriting, resplendent in hooks and
choruses but still touched with an optimism undimmed.
After spending nearly two decades establishing herself across New York and Los Angeles independent
music circles, Rose re-emerges after six years with a fresh form, aesthetic, and ethos. Celebrated over
the years for her expansive approach to songwriting, lush atmospherics, and transcendent vocal
melodies and harmonies, Love As Projection is a reintroduction of her established style through the lens
of contemporary electronic pop. Recorded with producer Brandt Gassman and mixed with long-term
collaborator Jorge Elbrecht this is the album Frankie Rose has been building up to her entire career.
More than a rebirth, a refinement, a resurgence, Love As Projection boasts a widescreen scope: a longform project heavily considered for half of a decade, culminating in the most personal and accessible
collection of art-pop that Frankie has ever written. When Rose aims for the pop jugular as in first lead
track Anything, the result is unstoppable. A majestic pop song built for radio, it erupts into an irresistible
chorus that marries classic epic 80s American pop with the cult effervescence of Strawberry
Switchblade “It’s like a prom scene in a John Hughes movie. It’s a hopeful song about abandoning
fear even if the world is quite literally on fire.. In the end, at least we have each other,” says Rose.
Sixteen Ways further boasts a propulsive, massive chorus, though tempered by a cynicism built in
global post-truth, global malaise. “It’s about getting your hopes up, but simultaneously making lists in
your head about how it will never work out in your favour.”
The big anthems don’t let up there. On DOA some massive, rolling drums lathered in big mid-80s gated
reverb dovetail with a syncopated baseline for the ages as Rose’s vocal sails effortlessly above. The
effect isn’t unlike ethereal vocalists Clannad circa Howard’s Way or Enya jamming with Simple Minds
in their stadium-conquering heyday. Rose tempers the adrenalin with heart-tugging bittersweet tones
and there are plenty of them. Sleeping Night And Day takes its time with an off-the-cuff chorus,
swirling around in harmony and chorus-bass. Saltwater Girl picks up the balladeering baton with
another nod to album track-mode Switchblade, deep space opening up in the mid-tempo drum track
and soupy, digital atmospherics. Album closer Song For A Horse, reimagines modern Pop production
a-la-PC Music but shorn of the meta-atmosphere. Pianos, swelling synths, minor keys cut through with
major. These moments, also seen in Feel Light offer ballast to the soaring pop choruses. Moments like
these are big oceans of emotion to fall into before being led out by Rose into a bright new day.
Love As Projection is released in the USA by Slumberland.
Press: fra
