The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Himika Akram reporter
After a 9-year sabbatical, the American County-rock queen, Catlin Rose is back with a boom with her third album, Cazimi, which was released on Nov. 18. The break was totally worth the wait. The Nashvillian star already proved her mettle with her debut album ‘Own Side Now,’ followed by her second ‘The Stand-in.’ After that, she just disappeared keeping her fans waiting for…. Nothing. Seems a lot was going on in Roses personal life, when she commented about the near decade long hiatus.
“A 10-year streak of doom and disappointment,” said Rose.
She decided to come back to the studio in 2020; but alas; then the global pandemic put her musical venture on hold. But as they say, whatever happens, happens for a reason. This delay gave her the opportunity to work harder on her tracks; even some re-works. The result is ‘Cazimi,’ a perfect blend of attachment to her previous efforts; yet at the same time, experiments with sound and texture; which has a dash of pop, yet the root is still in Country genre. I would say the overall genre would fall in alternative country.
The word Cazimi is an astrological term which derives from Arabic language, meaning the position of the center of the sun in the sky. Rose wanted to explore why people get into difficult relationships full of uncertainty and confusion, she wanted to overcome these negative feelings.
“A place where a person can stand empowered by their own light rather than eviscerated by it,” said Rose.
My personal favorite is the opening track, ‘Carried Away,’ perhaps because in terms of lyrics and tune, it gave me a 90’s vibe. It is about a person wanting to be free, but at the same time cannot go too far without having to turn back because of her love for the other. It is melancholy but does not go overboard with it.
‘Baby’s Got a Way’ will surprise you in the sense, the lyrics are overbearing, in a disguise of the tune of a soothing lullaby, with which the song starts. In the mid-point “Why don’t you get up the ground,” the song produces a full-band eruption. Then, the outburst disappears, and the soothing lullaby continued.
Among the other songs from this album, ‘Getting It Right’ and ‘Nobody’s Sweetheart’ are mentionable because of their novelty and proves that Rose is not interested in limiting her tracks into a rigid plateau of genre.
In the middle part of the album, however, the tracks lost a bit of grip and became a bit monotonous. Among the middle part of the tracks, I personally liked ‘Blameless,’ which was about sorrow and remorse derived from a love that went wrong.
Another powerful performance was ‘Black Obsidian,’ which was about self-destruction. We always let the person we love hurt us, despite that, we cannot stop caring about them and trying to give more. We try to give so much so that we tend to lose ourselves in that process; our expectation does not end; finally, it leads us to getting hurt again and brings more disappointments.
The chorus of the songs were brilliant, but the music sounded a little bit too processed for me. As I mentioned in the beginning, there are lots of experiments she has done in this album; that is the reason somehow the music lost its natural edge. The blurry effect was a bit too much when each song did not need it. Also, all song lyrics are self-reflective and center around self- doubt, confusion, difficult relationships, and ambiguity. In that sense, this album almost seemed like a concept album to me. Nevertheless, there is no denying the fact that the lyrics are catchy, thoughtful, and strong. They made me feel like I was having a conversation with myself.
With her soft yet powerful voice, which is her biggest asset, Rose certainly did an excellent job, and this is by far her strongest work. After the long break, Rose has become much more confident and a stronger singing-genius.