Toronto native Rose Brokenshire gives her home City her heart on smooth track “Alright,” taken from her upcoming In A Spell EP.
Sitting at just two minutes, Rose Brokenshire’s ode to Toronto gives us a whistle-stop tour of her favourite spots.
Having overhauled her folky sound that was well established on her first two EP’s Seeds You Grow and Wend released back in 2013 and 2014 respectively, Rose Brokenshire has returned with a more lo-fi electronic feel. With an inherently folksy voice and sense of storytelling, combining this with ambient bedroom tones and a hypnagogic mood, the singer-songwriter has created a unique and understatedly powerful sound.
With her upcoming four-track EP In A Spell, now is the perfect time to show off her hard work; “Alright” is the shining example of this reimagined sound.
Written with “a simultaneous frustration and understanding of our current predicament” (here meaning that little old pandemic that’s going on), “Alright” speaks to the heart of the listener. It’s a smooth, stripped back, jazz-infused track that sounds like a summer night feels.
There’s a sense of calm and security to the track, a feeling that comes from walking around your hometown with an ease, knowing exactly where you are. “Alright” has this embedded in it, with references to multiple Toronto locations, Rose Brokenshire sings “I want to be/Watching movies at the Revue/And drinking beers at Trinity too/Dancing at The Cameron with you/I want to feel alright”.
Yet despite its seemingly calm surface, an anxious mood is hidden in the depths of the track, an impatience to be back to normalcy, to visit these much-loved places again. When she sings “I just want to get outside/But loneliness is dignified/I’m never ready to say goodnight”, you can’t help but be jolted with a feeling of stark recognition. It’s something that most people are experiencing almost daily at the moment, this duality of wanting to leave the house as you’re feeling trapped, yet knowing that you must stay indoors for the good of yourself and everyone around you.
With plans to release a 6 track visual album this autumn and a studio album in 2021, Rose Brokenshire is making the most of her time inside, despite her heart yearning for the outside.
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