Stream: Rosie Tucker, ‘Ambrosia’
Kevin Bronson on
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Indie-rocker Rosie Tucker’s March album “Never Not Never Not Never Not” struck a chord not just for its unvarnished musical pleasures but for the songwriter’s distinct voice. Not “voice” as in vocals, but voice as in point of view. Alternately wry, funny, sad and poignant, Tucker’s songs play out like emotional miniatures, all their details and rapier observations serving as brushstrokes in a bigger portrait worthy of a long gaze. The unique “voices” of Liz Phair and Ani DiFranco come to mind.
The new single “Ambrosia” is Tucker’s strengths in a crucible … or in the refrigerator, as it were. Ostensibly an ode to “the dish of the gods” (now relegated to the back of the fridge), the song meditates on aging, wanting and Cool Whip. The songwriter can make sweeping statements about some things — for instance, you are seconds older when the singer finishes the verse about aging than when it began (think about it) — but unlike the fruit salad, there in no easy recipe for anything. “Nothing is simple just ’cause you wish that it is,” is Tucker’s plaintive conclusion.
It’s one best served chilled.
||| Stream: “Ambrosia”
||| Live: Rosie Tucker opens for Soccer Mommy on Oct. 4 at Pappy & Harriet’s in Pioneertown. Tickets. Tucker also plays the free Monday residency at the Bootleg Theater in November (Nov. 4, 11, 18 and 25).
||| Previously: “Gay Bar”
[…] way in 2019, releasing the full-length “Never Not Never Not Never Not,” followed by the so-sweet-you-could-just-eat-it single “Ambrosia.” The new year brought more of the artist’s unvarnished but literate earnestness in the form of […]