Just a few weeks on from announcing her new album i wanna feel happy with lead single “dad”, Rosie Carney has delivered a second dose of what’s to come with “break the ground”. She introduces it by saying:
“It’s a song about being in denial when things are falling apart. Lyrically, I kind of wanted the song to feel like some kind of uncomfortable dreamlike world, the type where you feel heavy and when you run, your legs barely move and the killer is catching up, but in this case you’re pretending like you can’t even see them.”
While “dad” saw her move towards shoegaze, “break the ground” takes us back towards the dream-folk sound of her debut album – but with beautiful augmentations. She immediately places us in her mental mire as she opens by singing “knee deep in a wasteland / I’m no good at treading softly.” It makes an interesting contrast to the instrumentation around her, which is simply gorgeous – an angelic atmosphere of rippling acoustic guitar and silken synths that cushion her voice and its troubled words. It feels like Carney is stuck in the mud of reality but striving to reach that heaven she imagines, she wants to “break the ground” and reach up to a world of possibility – a vision we get glimpses of as the song’s production blossoms into a fuller dreampop sound. Overall, “break the ground” is a divine depiction of the human condition; wanting so much, but feeling like we’re being tethered to the ground by daily drudgery and a lack of self-belief.
Listen to “break the ground” below or find it on your preferred streamer.
Rosie Carney’s i wanna feel happy comes out on May 27 through Color Study. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
