Four long years ago, the Asheville singer-songwriter Alexa Rose emerged with Headwaters, an impressive album that merged elements of folk-pop, roots rock, and indie singer-songwriter fare. She popped back up with a Lucinda Williams cover in 2023, and now she's back with her next grand statement.<!-more-->
Rose announced her new album Atmosphere a while back, and this week she's up to her third advance track. She and producer Ryan Gustafson of the Dead Tongues recorded at Sylvan Esso's studio Betty's out in the North Carolina woods, with backing from a range of talented players. The sessions went down not long after Hurricane Helene caused devastating floods in North Carolina. "I related to the music in a different way," Rose says in a press release. "I had just moved into a new place after losing access to my house, and felt a little tossed around the way everyone did. The experience deepened my love for my home and my belief in the resilience of the land and communities in Appalachia."
The Atmosphere rollout began with the tender, graceful "Where The Magic Lives" and continued with "Arms," Rose's song that tackles America's gun violence epidemic from a child's perspective. ("I think I was trying to imagine a fantastical, happy ending to the worst thing I can imagine," she said upon release, "but not in a way that’s real or practical, more so in a way that a child might imagine it.") This week she dropped the ballad "Anywhere, OH," a snapshot from a small town she visited on tour.
All three tracks are worth your time, so listen to them below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Atmosphere"
02 "Anywhere, OH"
03 "Lilacs"
04 "Storms"
05 "Promising What"
06 "Where The Magic Lives"
07 "Arms"
08 "Costumes"
09 "Everything Is Coming Together"
10 "Lighter"
Atmosphere is out 10/31 on First City Artists. Pre-order it here.
