Strange Smell Brings Out Best Of Lucy Rose In Edinburgh

It's very easy to think of Lucy Rose as this lovely folk songstress, singing (lyrically) simple songs about sweet'n'sour relationships, lumping her in with seven million other similarly good looking scruffy folk upstarts that emerged from the mid 2000's Marling/Noah and the Whale era.

But what Rose has (since her beginnings as a vocalist in Bombay Bicycle Club), is a great band around her. They fit in and around her meandering melodies, bringing in elements of funk and indie with off beat drums and deliciously measured guitar playing that verges on some sort of uber mellow Foals-esque math rock. Take nothing away from Rose's perfectly crafted folk writing, but these elements bring her live performance to life.

On this night, at a sold out Electric Circus she played ten new songs, as well as the majority of her 2012 debut, a crowd-led happy birthday tune for her keyboard player and a (personal highlight) five minute reprise resulting from an anonymous smell in the audience that rendered Lucy unable to play from giggling/gagging...

Following the dissipation of said smell she composes herself and gets back into bopping around the stage with a confidence she didn't have a few years ago. 'All I Have'  was backed up by a dedicated crowd singalong, as was 'Middle of the Bed' and the encore of 'Red Face'. But despite the electronic touches and the drummings and the clever guitarings, the Alt-J factor and her loveliness... I'm left in a smiling daze, wanting something more visceral and perhaps less friendly. 

If Lucy was a Rose, she'd be blooming... but I'm left wondering where her thorns are.  Sometimes a Rose needs a few thorns.

The new album 'Work It Out' is set to be released in July.

To find out more about Lucy Rose click here.

To visit the Lucy Rose Facebook page click here.

Words by Josiah Whitworth

 

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