Anna Rose’s Behold a Pale Horse
By Jane Croft
Need a new thorny path for you heart to wander down? Thirsting for an album that beautifully represents the many dark and beautiful corridors of the human heart? Check out New York-based rocker Anna Rose’s latest album, Behold a Pale Horse. A deep swirl of blue and rock and roll, this collection won’t disappoint.
For the curious mind, the CD title (and title track) is a phrase from the Book of Revelations and a representation of death.
“The album is about the concept of death and what that really means to each of us individually based on our histories. For me, death is not just physically dying. It can be the death of a relationship or a friendship, the ending of an era in your life, anything like that. Death is everywhere, but so is rebirth and it’s that cycle that spawned this record,” says Anna Rose.
“This album might have come from a darker place, but ultimately I think helped create this stronger more empowered me. I finally feel like I know where I belong now and I know who I am more than ever before.”
The title track is packed with rusty razor emotion. With vocals that bring to mind Janis Joplin and Tori Amos, Anna Rose’s voice swells up from the dry, cracked earth and brings blood back to the land. The guitar work is (in this humble writer’s opinion) at first totally unexpected but spurs the song to even greater heights. “I’m forever your ghost,” the lyrics promise. “I’m in every footstep and every breath.”
The energy continues with “Electric Child.” Anna Rose keeps up with the brazen vixen visage in this one, showing that her talent is both sexy and dangerous like long, thin fingers ending in chipped red polish. With vocal distortion, she electrifies the speakers and with that power, a listener could easily mistake this petite singer for a giantess.
Finally, the black curtain of protection surrounding Anna Rose quietly drops, defeated and tired, to the stage floor in “Shoot All the Lights.” We hear the singer at her most vulnerable as she’s softly suggesting to a dear friend, or begging a restless lover, to stop searching the horizon for things that will never materialize. Happiness can be found right where he or she stands.
Anna Rose is all woman ~ dedicated to the story of the human heart ~ and a talented musician. Behold a Pale Horse is not to be missed.
Need proof for yourself? Check out the video.