#Claire Rosinkranz

[sororygilmore]

CLAIRE ROSINKRANZ via her instagram (february 10, 2024)

[jacksoneblackburn]

If you're wondering, my favorite music artists are Madilyn Mae, Naethan Apollo, Melanie Martinez, Ariana Grande, Camilla Cabello, Milk in the Microwave, Olivia Rodrigo, Claire Rosinkranz, Laufey, Rihanna, Mad Tsai, Bug Hunter, Billie Eilish, and a BUNCH of show tunes that I have no idea who the person singing is.

[tsitp-favourites]

Swinging at the Stars✨

🎥: @clairerosinkranz on IG

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[manysmallhands]

Top 10 Albums of 2023!

This was all supposed to work out differently. As i recall from the now long distant past, my original plan was to do a countdown where i put up one post a day throughout December. However, I got Covid on December 1st and that plan immediately became lame and useless. After that, my assumption was basically that i wouldn't be able to do any of this, but i got better more quickly than i'd anticipated and found myself working on these reviews in bits as the month has gone on. So, having rushed through all the the song blurbs that i wanted to do, here i am on New Year's Eve with a more or less finished Top 10 albums to put up.

The only problem is that there are ten quite lengthy reviews here and the vibe is already pretty tl:dr. But tbh that's fine: there really is only my girlfriend who ever reads everything (and i believe her, trust is what love is all about after all) so for anyone looking at this and thinking blimey, that's a lot of text, my advice is: you don't have to read any of it. Just look at the albums, scan thru to see if it sounds like something you might like and give one or two of them a listen if that looks like the case. The words are really just to keep me occupied but i'd like to hope that someone likes some of the records.

I said yesterday that i would reveal what the best one is and so I am now delivering on that important promise. The best one is Scarlet by Doja Cat. Anyone who follows me on whatever platform already knows that the best one is Scarlet by Doja Cat. Don't make me say it again.

Barbie - The Album

Few people have seemed much interested in the Barbie soundtrack, other than the punters who kept it atop the compilations chart for four months. I, as ever, channel the spirit of the populous. The sound is basically 80s synth pop updated for a modern audience  - the likes of Haim and Ava Max slot in predictably well - but its the extra dimensions created by how the artists interact with the film that provide some of its more interesting aspects. Sam Smith’s Man I Am reflects a surprisingly LGBTQ Ken despite protestations (certainly its "I'm not gay bro, but..." T-shirt is prompting a lot of questions already answered by the shirt), while Billie Eilish dwelling on life as a manufactured product makes for interesting and uncomfortable parallels in What Was I Made For. Mark Ronson’s plasticky production suits its subject to a tee, further cementing the conceptual unity of the project.

Star turns abound throughout the album as A-listers like Dua Lipa and Lizzo bring their best games alongside some terrific and unlikely downcard cameos. What Was I Made For? and Dance The Night were both deserved #1s, but the pacey pop punk of GAYLE’s Butterflies and Dominic Fike’s breezy, hook laden Hey Blondie are as much highlights as any of the bigger names here. Special mention should be made for Ryan Gosling’s I’m Just Ken, a blockbuster 70s rock number that, whilst puncturing the wider stylistic template, is batshit and hilarious enough to more than justify its place as well as netting him a surprise hit too. The quality lapses once or twice (Tame Impala in particular are bloody awful) but by the time Ava fires the final laser I’m generally happy to go back and start all over again. With banger after banger here, my verdict is in: the Barbie soundtrack is *Charli voice* HOT!

Claire Rosinkranz - Just Because

While this has been a year that I’ve gotten more fully into pop, it took a while for me to find many new albums that I’ve been interested in. This may partly be to do with me clinging to an idea that LPs ought to be substantial beyond having good hooks and charm. In truth, all I needed to do was revert to my indiepop training, where bands have never knowingly been fussed about having any great weightiness. But even so, it took Just Because to make it clear to me that no, you really don’t need any grand vision at all: a high number of great if frothy pop songs will do just fine. It’s a record which bounces from banger to banger in an endearingly sunny style, with each tune so catchy that their lightness becomes a strength rather than a weakness.

Rosinkranz’s voice seems to mark her out as one of the many Billie clones who populate the current pop scene but her musical ambitions are both simpler and more instantly engaging. Not yet 20, her songs have an element of schoolyard whispers which add a welcome silliness here and there, but she also plays with the intensity of youthful emotions to make them a little heartrending even as she goofs off. Highlights include Dreamer, a break up song where the vocal makes it clear that she’s far from as done as she says she is, and Wes Anderson, which offers some sombre advice but packages it in a song so sweet that you’d never know. But in spite of all this it makes no end of year lists (well, maybe just the one), being merely a lovable set of songs that are very hard to forget. Need it be more? I don't believe so.

Doja Cat - Scarlet

Mired in discourse throughout the year, Doja Cat still found time to make a chart topping single (Paint The Town Red) that took the world by storm and a cracking album which, sadly, did not. Scarlet was in my opinion the better of the two: largely ditching the afrobeat pop of Planet Her, Doja staked her claim as an old skool rapper and brought it off pretty well, mixing hard rhyming with her more scattershot pop delivery and sounding entirely comfortable wherever she landed. While flitting musically between modern RnB and neo-soul grooves, her subject matter was largely taken up by how much she hated her fans, a bold strategy that found her shedding support even as blistering tracks like Fuck The Girls shaped up as some of my favourites of the year.

Whilst I’ve found myself uncomfortable with both the company that she keeps and the views which she may or may not subscribe to (i feel safe in saying that she's a right wing edgelord but i suspect that’s the least of it), Scarlet is such a good album that I’ve found myself, if not making excuses for her, then at least deftly navigating around my distaste in order to keep listening to it. While Agora Hills often reminded me how serious she is about her scumbag of a boyfriend, it’s still a song that can submerge me in its beauty entirely; while some of the complaints from her online audience are less easily dismissed than others, it’s more comfortable just to think about the morons calling her a devil worshiper, especially when she mocks them so wickedly on the elegant Skull And Bones. Am I the problem? Maybe I am: it’s a place I often find myself in with hip hop, where faves are frequently problematic and exceptions beg to be made. As such, I can not wholeheartedly recommend this record to people who might want to take a principled stand against some of her bullshit. I can only say that, as a musical talent, there was no one better all year.

Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Boulevard?

After 2021’s fairly middling brace of albums, Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd always felt like it was going to be a return to form and this time the faithful were not disappointed. It was another epic and sprawling record which unfolded like a cross between The Bible and a 50s musical. While changeable in style, ranging from hammy country ballads to trap beats and beyond, the thing that springs to mind most often is the Great American Songbook, as Lana takes the melodramatic grandeur of those standards and soaks them in her own messy and complicated worldview. This draws in family, romance, the future, her relationship with religion and how it all scrappily fits together, ranging widely and wildly across 75 extraordinary minutes.

Much of the album feels like it’s being broadcast from a kind of dreamworld, although one that overlays with reality neatly enough. Lana’s dismissive “if you want some basic bitch go to the Beverly Centre and find her” line undercuts the mood on the otherwise lush and evocative Sweet but the impact is hilarious rather than jarring, a perfect marriage of the strange and mundane. In contrast, the brooding A&W initially brings that realism to a far more uncomfortable level, before goofing off wonderfully in the second half in a way that only Lana ever really dares to do. Much of the record feels like it's creating its own language, as key phrases (“let the light in”, “when you know, you know”) are repeated and musical themes come back around in strange modulations. All in all, while perhaps less satisfying as a pop record than Norman Fucking Rockwell, Did You Know… feels like her most complete statement on a personal level yet, whilst still working well within the broader world that she’s spent over a decade constructing.

Mitski - The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We

Despite liking the odd song or two, I have until now been largely immune to Mitski over the full length of an album. But The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We has a much more organic sound than I’m used to hearing from her, well adrift from the polished guitar rock of her big 10s records. Instead, it takes many of its cues from classic folk and country, occasionally lush and expansive, often determinedly sombre but always at a distance from the areas where she’s generally been at home. Opener Bug Like An Angel is a brooding scene setter, where Mitski unveils the terse and grumpy presence we will grow familiar with over the next half hour. The main elements of the album are already in place - the spare instrumentation; Mitski’s extraordinary voice, hard and intransigent but still full of yearning; the occasional, overwhelming interjections from the wings. It all creates a distinctive atmosphere, extremely intense but intimate too: we’re allowed into Mitski’s world but there’s a lot to take in.

Lyrically, the songs are both heavily allusive and extremely personal, like hearing ancient parables told by the characters from the story. Surprise hit My Love Mine All Mine seems to sit apart as a relatively standard love song but a closer listen reveals deeper layers; the placing of her love as something independent from its object makes it feel more of a piece with the album’s other enigmas. At a time where Mitski seemed to be cooling on being a rock star, The Land Is Inhospitable adds a new twist to her long musical journey, seemingly presenting a more intimate portrait while in fact retaining most of her essential mystery. As an album, it really is quite something: what that is I’m less certain of but I like it regardless.

Olivia Rodrigo - Guts

Tho I wouldn't have called myself a hater (I don’t think I would have been bothered enough), I don't really like Olivia’s all conquering debut Sour, which I thought a bit too one-note and overpopulated with slushy ballads. But by the time Guts came around I was open to listening again, drawn in by its excellent singles and primed for a different experience. Vampire, the best of them and more or less of this year, was a fantastic example of taking something that Olivia is clearly very accomplished at (the grand piano lament) and then, rather than running that into the ground, instead using it as a springboard for an entirely different idea. Get Him Back and Bad Idea Right hark back to earlier guitar based tracks like Brutal, but on Guts they form a much more substantive part of the album, cementing its brand of addictive pop grunge and working up a much goofier version of her messy teen persona.

Elsewhere, the ballads did in fact return. Some have speculated that this may have been a bad idea (right?) but for me they’ve been growers, particularly the likes of Lacy and The Grudge, where Olivia explores the bitterness of youth and uses it to tear holes in the people who’ve wronged her. But if I’m honest, it’s the rockers that I’m usually waiting for: whether the new wave pastiche of Love Is Embarrassing or autumnal Cure homage Pretty Isn’t Pretty, each one feels like a mini-revelation and it’s the style that I hope she leans on most in the future.

Palehound - Eye On The Bat 

Palehound have been around for a while now and every so often I’ve given their records a try and haven't really managed to connect with them properly. Eye on the Bat has been the first exception, though whether that's because it’s any better than the others or I just made more of an effort with it I don’t know. Its template is certainly well worn in the indie world - country rock with varying degrees of aggression or melodic sweetness - but there’s still a lot here that grabs my attention, especially in the charming indie pop of the title track and the heart-rending melancholy of Route 22.

But the thing that caught my ear the most was Ellen Kempner’s disarming honesty, with much of the album spent documenting what sounds like a deeply messy break up. Whether she’s bitterly picking through the fall out on Independence Day or remembering some hilariously embarrassing bedroom scene on opener Good Sex, Eye On The Bat's almost diaristic view is mesmerising throughout, making you warm to Kempner even as she works thru some of her own worst traits. And aside from anything else, her understanding of relationships underlines her strengths as a lyricist, as she dissects their complexities with wit, sympathy and occasional anger to capture all the stuff that transcends whatever we were hoping for in the first place.

Poppy - Zig

After the wild ride that commenced with 2020’s extraordinary pop/metal mash up I Disagree, Poppy has journeyed thru indie rock, goth and punk to wind up back where she started, only not quite. Zig may represent a return to pop - indeed it’s produced by Weeknd affiliate Ali Payami - but it’s one that’s filtered thru all of the places she stopped off along the way.

The crepuscular grind of Church Outfit and Knockoff sound like more danceable versions of the I Disagree sound, while the crunching title track suggests that she can still go as hard as ever. But there are nods to a lighter side here as well, particularly in the strong trio that wind up the album: The Attic recasts her sound in a euphoric drum n bass clatter whilst closer Prove It kicks up a remarkable blend of manic hyperpop and gentle electro-balladry, whilst still working in the rich emotional palette that she’s developed in recent years.

In one sense this is a huge departure from the frenetic punk of last year’s Stagger EP but the vibes here stake out territory that you’d still find oddly familiar. Some of the gothy ballads are less immediate than other songs but nothing on Zig is boring, just varying refinements on her ever evolving musical journey. The critics were split, occasionally rattled and sometimes just plain baffled, but that’s only to be expected by now. Poppy follows her own plan and rarely sticks to the same tune: in truth it’s a privilege just to be a witness to the chaos.

Sweeping Promises - Good Living Is Coming For You

One thing that I find missing in a lot of modern guitar based music is snappy songs with good catchy hooks. While Sweeping Promises appear to place their focus elsewhere - their high concept sound is best understood as someone broadcasting direct from 1979 through a wristwatch speaker - their second album still finds time to deliver fully on the tunes. Good Living Is Coming To You is steeped in bubblegum melodies and memorable choruses, with songs that become earworms before you’ve even registered how catchy they are. 

More than anything, it's dominated by Lira Mondal’s imperious vocals: whether it’s in the cascading harmonies of Throw Of The Dice, the fierce yells and hisses that close out the title track or her sweet voiced switch-outs on Ideal No, her character springs out of every song in a way that few singers ever really manage to impose. While you might think that the post punk era has been mined to death by now, Sweeping Promises drag new life into it by going back further: their sound may be heavily rooted in a specific moment but the elements of songcraft often have more in common with 60s girl group classics than gnarled art rockers. Ten bangers and no filler: Good Living Is Coming For You is everything I wanted from it and more.

Wednesday - Rat Saw God

While the queasy vibes of 2021’s Twin Plagues are still high in the mix here, it was the welcome injection of melody on Wednesday's third album that managed to alert the media. That lightness was more apparent in Karly Hartzman's lyrics than you might notice on a passing listen too: though often praised for her grimly amusing takes on middle American backwaters, the key to them was her deceptively soft touch, casting a sympathetic eye over grisly scenes even as she retained their gnarlier undertones.

Single Chosen To Deserve, with its crunching chorus and heartwarming romantic turnaround, feels like the designated big moment from the record but in reality Rat Saw God has an embarrassment of riches. Quarry in particular, with its Waterloo Sunset-esque signature and matter-of-fact dissection of grim local gossip, is an almost pop version of the most haunting aspects of Hartzman's craft, while the washed out bounce of closer TV in the Gas Pump pitches a lonelier scene in a similarly gorgeous manner.

This is not to forget that Wedneday can still rock extremely hard when they want to, especially on the brutal 8 minute Bull Believer, an ambitious multipart epic that ends with Hartzman screaming “FINISH HIM!!!” repeatedly over the chaotic finale. But while Rat Saw God brought this kind of sawtoothed sound back to widespread acclaim, its real trick was how it sugared the pill just enough to get it past even the most determinedly sweet tooth.

[iconsfinder]

[lyricallyiinlove]

i'm too pretty for this, claire rosinkranz

[svnflowermoon]

CLAIRE ROSINKRANZ

[elliedafish]

Top Spotify Artists This Month (Poll)

I couldn't think of any good polls today so I'm just gonna go with this basic one. I'm not gonna include Taylor because I know she would win, but out of all of the options my favorite is Sabrina because she is my favorite artist. Obviously all of the options are good and if you don't like any of them then clearly one of us isn't understanding the assignment (personally, I think it's you). Idk if the top artists this month is a recap from the past month or what I currently listen to this month, but Taylor is at the top so these are my next 10 artists. This is in order in case anyone feels like judging my taste in music.

[thesingalongsong]

“My body's kinda sore

Motivation on the floor

The drama makes me bored

But I heard he said she's a whore,”

[literaryspinster]

Another Music Tag Game!

Rules: if you get this, you have to put 5 songs you actually listen to. Then tag ten some of your followers.

Thanks for tagging me @unreal-unearthing! 😁

I've been listening to these quite regularly since I learned they existed, for some of them that was as long as 3 years ago.

Pain- King Princess (thanks Bottoms!)

2. Frankenstein- Claire Rosinkranz

3. Be Sweet (Korean version) - Japanese Breakfast featuring So!YOoN!

4. Mood- SiR Featuring Zacari

5. Mother May I?- Foe

Tagging: @ambelle @tarotofbadkitties @graysonfamfan2021 @neshatriumphs @blackfemmecharacterdependency @eddawrites @anakinskywalkerisfave

[caitrionavalmai]

Obsessed 🤩

[tsitp-favourites]

Swinging at the Stars ✨

🎥: @clairerosinkranz on YT

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[manysmallhands]

My Favourite Songs of 2023 part 2: 30 - 21

Carrying on from yesterday's post, this is the second part of the countdown!

30. Claire Rosinkranz - Wes Anderson

I liked Wes Anderson the first time I heard it but couldn’t help thinking about how lightweight it is. A few months on i'm less picky: in fact I've come to think that insubstantiality is part of its charm. Rosinkranz is still a teenager and the bounce of youth comes through strongly in her music but she’s capable of adding a touch of ruefulness to stop it from floating away completely. Yes it’s froth, but in the very best way: indulgent for those of us with a sweet tooth and always extremely addictive.

29. Sabrina Carpenter - Feather

Sabrina Carpenter has a few songwriting modes but it's in the charming disco pop of Feather that I find her at her most listenable. Built around an elastic bassline, the music feels as airy as its title while Carpenter’s vocal is hilarious as she expertly drags an old boyfriend. Keeping you on the line with hook after hook while delivering barbs and punchlines with the skill of a stand up, Feather was a brilliant flipside to Carpenter's harder edged material.

28. The Clientele - Hey Siobhan

While much focus has been placed on their recent changes in style, I will admit to feeling happier when The Clientele stick to the basics and never more so than on Hey Siobhan. All your favourite Clientele sounds are there - the warm twilight majesty, the stately strings and climbing guitar arpeggios - but rather than feeling like a tired old retread, its greatness seems magnified by the novelty of new surroundings. Cosy maybe but in a good way, like some comfy old slippers you’d never dream of throwing out.

27. Dua Lipa - Dance The Night

Dance The Night felt a touch identikit on first hearing, a bit too close to the Future Nostalgia sound to mark a genuine move forward, but it’s sounded better as the year’s gone on, especially in comparison to the oddly formless Houdini. Built on a combination of glossy hooks and Dua’s commanding presence, her second solo number one feels just as effortless as its subject. It's an incessantly dynamic track but one which, for all the work on display, still manages to leave not one hair out of place.

26. Peggy Gou - (It goes like) Nanana

Peggy’s breakthrough single is fairly typical of her oeuvre, a belting 90s style house banger with a sketchy but endearing vocal and the catchiest of choruses. Has she done this better? Yes, absolutely she has, but it’s still pretty great, a hit is always worth celebrating and never before has she made a video with such a well drilled shoulder dancing routine.

25. Doja Cat - Ouchies

One of my favourite cuts from the Scarlet album, Ouchies has the kind of punchy sound that really ought to have sustained Doja's audience levels. Punctuated with a beat that feels like a repeated prod to the chest, Doja shouts “Fight!” as she stops worrying about the fangirls and takes a pop at everyone else instead. The vibraphone provides a sinister background swirl while everything else kicks off hard in this perfect expression of her confrontational schtick.

24. Dominic Fike - Hey Blondie

The lower card on the Barbie soundtrack is full of hidden gems and Dominic Fike’s sunny dissection of our plastic heroine is one of the finest. Deceptively cheerful with its shuffling rhythms and arpeggios, it's the sharp lyrics and extraordinary chorus hook that really leave their mark. A song so catchy that, once heard, it can surely never leave the brain again.

23. SZA - Too Late

Released in the tricksy end of year spot last December, I’m unsure if it’s cheating to bring SZA in but i’ve done it here anyway. Too Late is sad girl music that somehow doesn’t feel all that sad; there’s cheer in its folksy guitar sound and SZA’s vocal seems as much about her hopes for the future as the relationship she can't save. As is so often the case on the SOS album, it seems to span three or four different genres without sounding in the least bit awkward or ungainly. Instead, it’s as gorgeous a melancholy pop song as you're ever likely to hear, whether this year or last.

22. Kenya Grace - Strangers

Kenya Grace’s surprise #1 felt like the kind of thing you might hear in a 90s version of the 2020s, with its shuffling rhythms and icy synths coming off like retro futurism in a pop context. But what draws me back to Strangers is the vulnerability of its tone, with its vision of a world that isn’t quite hook-up culture but where connection remains impermanent and disappointment is always a click away. Few songs this year felt so hauntingly open hearted.

21. Sweeping Promises - Good Living is Coming For You

Sweeping Promises' spiky new wave sound got a bubblegum makeover for their second album and hit a new peak on the title track. Essentially a dubby, claustrophobic rant about a menacing interior design plan, Lira Mondal’s vocal alternately holds back and ferociously lets go while the whole thing sounds oddly triumphant in all its strangled, squalid glory. 

More tomorrow (i hope).

[iconsfinder]

[sororygilmore]

{ clairerosinkranz hi cuties. just wanna say thank you to everyone who's been so patient with me and my music. the past 4 months have been insane with my health issues and i am in awe of your love and encouragement through it all. so excited to give you guys some new music to listen to even though it feels like this album is taking a decade to come out. + can't wait to share the well of shit that's been blossoming from my more current, chaotic && beautiful experiences. here's me on a boat in the meantimes. ily }

[iforgotwhat]

It's difficult walking with a straight face while my headphones play Claire singing HOTEL