Known for their potent scent and prickling sharpness, roses have long since been a botanical declaration of love. Such sentiments of sweetness and thorniness have been harnessed in the seventh album from Brooklyn duo Widowspeak, released via Captured Tracks. ‘Roses’ - Widowspeak’s first release in nearly four years - sees the creative outputs of spouses Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas branch to flourishing new directions, sprawling down avenues of romance, by the way of deep realism.
After garnering critical acclaim for their evocative blend of folk-tinged slowcore and poetic narrations of labour, death and modern anxieties, Widowspeak took to the hills of Hydra for the recording of ‘Roses’. With the Greek Saronic island as their backdrop, Hamilton and Thomas have crafted a series of wistfully meandering melodies, artfully describing spouts of longing and reminiscing.
From the chugging opener ‘The Hook’ - with its honeyed guitar chords and melancholic musings - Widowspeak quietly, but immediately, assure listeners that their dreaminess has not waned during their four-year interim. Featuring romantic declarations of “I’m not holding a flame for you / but I’d keep every little thing that reminds me of you”, the band soundtrack the difficult process of harbouring memory morsels, all whilst injecting doses of rich, Northwestern warmth.
Seamlessly integrated alongside numbers of balladic romance are the spiralling Rolling Stones-esque guitar solo of ‘No Driver’ - whose instrumentation bears similarities with the ‘Sticky Fingers’ playbook - along with the seductive ethereality of ‘Wondering’. But as ‘Roses’ progresses, so does its myriad of genres. For example, ‘Softcover’, the third single to be lifted from the album, sees Widowspeak adopt a grittier, grunge-laced approach, with the track swaggering with an almost citric-like twang. Hamilton’s vocals, sugary in their delivery, recount an ongoing infatuation, whilst Thomas’ electric guitar administers the slicing blows, as jangly acoustic strumming watches on.
Yet the album’s best in show comes in the form of the indescribably tender ‘If You Change’. Released as the album’s first single, ‘If You Change’ poetically chronicles the complex conflict of preservation and change within a relationship, whilst the instrumentation blooms into dreampop and alt-country. Atop the adoring instrumentation, of which Thomas’ breezy guitar takes centre stage, sits the single’s heartfelt yet almost anxious moral - “if you change, don’t change too much / I really loved this one”. Managing to be both elegantly intimate and strikingly relatable, ‘If You Change’ is timeless, almost akin to love itself.
By successfully utilising tender moments as a vessel for narrating deeper heartaches, ‘Roses’ sees Widowspeak take on their richest and most enchanting form yet. Throughout the album, Hamilton and Thomas excel in sowing a honeyed sweetness within all ten of its tracks, before skilfully pricking them with the deep pangs of reality. Considered, genuine song writing and evocative, velvet guitar tones culminate in a truly deft and delicate release.
Widowspeak have recently announced a run of US tour dates, beginning in their hometown of New York, before concluding on the West Coast. The band are also set to embark on a UK and EU tour this Winter; tickets can be found here.