Music Brew: rosie by ROSÉ
Rosé bares her all in rosie, regaling the pains of love in a way that puts her right back in the moment that she felt it.
Rosé, known for being one of the four members of the all-girl, K-Pop band BLACKPINK, released her first ever solo album.
In this heartfelt project, she conjures up love’s effects from a very truthful and emotionally raw place. The 12 tracks that make up the album walk listeners through her journey quite well, each one describing how love has influenced her.
What I really like about this album is that it doesn’t feel like there’s a beginning and an end; it feels like there’s a start and a finish (for now). She only shows us a snapshot of her life; a sliver of the timeline. But the healing is always ongoing.
Rosé’s journey begins with “number one girl,” a ballad vulnerably describing how she is at love’s mercy; how it can convince us it’s okay to settle for what we are given versus going after what we deserve. But she’s okay with that…musing “I just want it to be you” in Track 2, titled “3am.”
In “two years,” which sounds very 1989-by-Taylor-Swift-esque, she reflects on how things ended with this person two years ago, how she “even held a funeral for [them] in [her] head,” but she still can’t let go of her feelings for them, despite earnestly trying to. However, in the next track, “toxic till the end,” she admits that the relationship wasn’t a healthy one and how she can finally see that now, her voice raw with pain.
In “drinks or coffee,” Track 5, she reveals another side of herself, giving off Glinda vibes from Wicked, except softer; she’s bubbly, flirty, and still the “it girl,” despite all the heartbreak.
“APT.” featuring Bruno Mars is the next track, the only collaboration on the album, and presents a much different vibe than what the rest of the work as a whole has to offer. To be honest, I do not like this song’s chorus. I do like how she took inspiration from a Korean drinking game which makes the song more interesting, and I can see how it’s fun, but it’s just too different from the rest of the tracks. However, Bruno fits in well here with Rosé and serves as a nice touch to the piece. “APT.” is definitely a made-for-radio hit.
Returning to her introspective and angelic solo tracks, Rosé has gained clarity about the past because she’s had distance from it in Track 7, “gameboy.” She sounds as if she’s proclaiming from her throne that this guy was not the one, and she feels “whatever” about it now. Brush it off, baby.
Yet another side of Rosé is unveiled through raspy belts and piano keys in “stay a little longer.” We hear a young woman express her fear of a good person and the relationship that comes with it, one of trust, because she’s been hurt so badly before by a bad one. She asks this new love to mess it up because the possibility of feeling the pain she clung onto for years all over again is too much. But on the flip side, this song also sounds like “the fall” into love.
Moving on to Track 9, “not the same,” Rosé officially does not miss her past relationship. Cheers to our girl! She sings about how this person changed for the worse over time when she was with them, and, taking this self-development and growth with her into Track 10, “call it the end,” demands answers from her new love interest about what exactly she is to them. She eliminates the grey and only focuses on the black and white of love, utilizing “either or” scenarios. “Do I call you my ex, or do I call you my boyfriend?” After being in such a harrowing relationship and harping on it for so long, she doesn’t have the time to debate “What are we?” with this new interest.
In “too bad for us,” the penultimate track, she serenades listeners alongside a delicately-plucked guitar. This track made me feel like I was sitting around a campfire with my really close friends beneath a starry, clear sky, reminiscing about how love is so much bigger than us.
And finally in Track 12, “dance all night,” Rosé delivers us to the conclusion of her project. This finale was not what I was expecting. I felt like it was kind of a letdown in terms of an album closer. However, the image she paints for us lyrically is a really strong one. I visualized her sitting on her bed, just boppin’ along, focusing solely on being happy in the present moment.
Maybe it’s this little moment of her feeling content that she’s crafted and decided to share that brings this work to a “close;” but the healing still continues. Maybe she’s pointing out that that’s what life is all about: finding the best in each moment that we get as we move forward.
Rosé’s rosie album is honest, humble, and encapsulates the beauty of being human. It takes immense strength to strip it down and be as vulnerable as she was.
Rating: 3.5 roses out of 5
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