/Arrica Rose: E.P Review

Arrica Rose: E.P Review

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Music.co.uk might be a U.K based site, but we’re attracting visitors from all over the world, and sometimes that means we can bring you some hot new music from abroad too. Arrica Rose is a female singer-songwriter from America, who’s just released an E.P called ‘Pretend I’m Fur’.

The story behind ‘Pretend I’m Fur’ is one of music, melody, and experimentation. What started life as Arrica and her producer playing around with beats in a studio as a ‘fake band’, is now a fully fledged E.P release, which debuted at number 32 on the I- Tunes Singer-Songwriter Chart.

For some artists, simplicity can sometimes have as much power and effect as complex arrangements, power ballad vocals, and frantic guitar riffs. Arrica and her producer Dan Garcia, have embraced simplicity and a light musical/vocal touch to produce this E.P. The question is, has their experiment been successful?

The first song, Pillow On The Ground, would be a good song to relax too on a summers day. It has a slightly melancholy mood, and the lyrical content is quite moving, which I enjoyed. The smooth backing vocals/harmonies also stood out for me on this.  A cover of The Bee Gee’s track Tragedy comes next. It’s a song I’ve heard many times, and to be honest wasn’t expecting anything new, but this was quite surprising. This version of Tragedy has a cute, almost music box like intro, followed by a slowed down, acoustic version of the song. Backing vocals and rhythmic drums complete a slightly haunting mood. Then the vibe shifts to sentimental in the song Memphis, to ambient, summer folk in the simply titled BE. Other tracks on the E.P include the smooth and soulful ‘Say Goodbye’, the Rousing ‘Be Still My Heart’, and lastly ‘I’ll Love You Forever And Other Lies’.

Overall, this E.P does still show signs of being an experiment, which I’m not sure always works. Although the guitar parts are very well written, the additional Brazilian instruments were sometimes distracting, and I would’ve liked to hear a little more pop/soul within the music, and a little more power to the lyrical story. On the flip side they have captured well, the swirling, dream like vibe in their songs that so many folk/indie/acoustic artists aim for, and listeners lose themselves in. Critique and opinion aside, I enjoyed it and I am sure many other people will too. If I was asked for a quote on this E.P, I would say something along the lines of:

“Arrica Rose has captured summer, and packaged it up in a series of charming songs that will hopefully see many people through the sunny days ahead.”

www.myspace.com/arricarose