Caroline Rose Breaks Down New Album The Art of Forgetting Track by Track: Exclusive

Grace Ann Natanawan
·5 min read

The post Caroline Rose Breaks Down New Album The Art of Forgetting Track by Track: Exclusive appeared first on Consequence.

Track by Track is a recurring feature series in which artists guide readers through every song on their latest release. Today, Caroline Rose breaks down their latest album, The Art of Forgetting.

Pop singer-songwriter Caroline Rose has unveiled their latest album, The Art of Forgetting, ahead of a North American tour (grab tickets here). Stream it via Apple Music or Spotify below.

Their songwriting finds strength in its candid and vulnerable nature, reaching new dynamic heights and building off of an established knack for storytelling. The Art of Forgetting is a project forged from heartbreak, as Rose handles each emotional twist of regret and grief with wit and acuity, blending upbeat melodies with darkly comedic lyrics.

The album captures grief as an all-consuming entity and describes how we process the emotion amidst loss. Each track is intimately laced with references to close relationships in Rose’s life, including voicemails from their grandmother and conversations with their mother.

The track “Jill Says” is based on Rose’s relationship with their therapist. “Jill is my therapist. When it felt like most of my sources of security went out the window, she was a real grounding force for me,” Rose tells Consequence.

Rose’s stirring vocal performance traverses the album’s dynamic highs and lows with grace, complimenting their lyrics. Grandiose strings and layered vocal harmonies create a dreamlike lucidity on tracks like “Lover / Lover / Friend,” while rousing percussion and rugged guitar serve as a backbone for more high-energy tracks.

Following the album’s release, Rose will be embarking on a spring tour throughout North America and parts of Europe. Tickets are available now via StubHub — where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program.

Listen to The Art of Forgetting and read Rose’s Track by Track breakdown of the album below.

“Love / Lover / Friend”:

You can really hear the love for my partner in this track, but also my resentment. She was a true love to me, so it was very confusing and frustrating when the relationship started to fray. There’s both a desperation and a triumph about it that still moves me.

“Rebirth”:

I’m having a really hard time describing this song because I don’t think it can be described in a few sentences. I was so desperate for comfort at the time, and also felt like I had really lost myself. There is a lot of shame — perhaps a bit of self-pity and martyrdom. There is also the heartbreaking realization in the story that I’m not going to find the comfort I long for.

“Miami”:

I felt like I had been bottling up my emotions for so long trying to keep myself together, because inside I felt like a total pariah. I had really forgotten how to love myself and it was probably pretty heartbreaking to watch.

“Better Than Gold”:

My Mee Maw was losing her memory and would sometimes forget she hadn’t hung up the phone after leaving me a message. Sometimes you could hear her having a conversation in the background. Here she is talking to her aid, telling her how great she is. I just thought it was so sweet and so pure.

“Everywhere I Go I Bring the Rain”:

The record is about accepting and facing my own pain, so what better way to talk about it than to write a pop song with a full choir in it?

“The Doldrums”:

This song originally had about seven pages of lyrics and went through multiple name changes. It was difficult to cut it down because everything felt so important. I will say the original was very very dark, maybe perhaps even too dark for the airwaves. It makes me so sad to think about myself in that place.

“The Kiss”:

I wrote this when I came back to Austin during the pandemic. I had been doing pretty well healing from a breakup, but when I came back home all hell broke loose in my mind. It felt like memories were everywhere and there was no escaping them.

“Cornbread”:

So much of the album takes place in my own head or having difficult, painful conversations, so to have these moments of pure innocent love from my grandma peppered throughout just felt to me like the perfect grounding element. Because honestly, that’s kind of how it was in real life.

“Stockholm Syndrome”:

As you listen through the album I wanted it to feel like you’re weaving through the grieving process, so in the second half there is a bit more humor, even if it’s still very dark humor. There are little glimpses of healing.

“Tell Me What You Want”:

To me, this is a classic breakup song. It’s that moment when you’re like, “Ahhh fuck it who cares!” and pretend like you’re totally fine, then have a complete panic that you’ve made a huge mistake. Relationships are so comically confusing to me.

“Florida Room”:

This was originally an entire song. My dad had told me there should be more upbeat songs on the album, so I thought it would be funny to write a song about the whole conversation. It ended up not really fitting on the album so I scrapped it before it was finished, but the original first lines were “My father said to me, you need a happy song on this album.” Maybe one day I will finish the full version.

“Love Song for Myself”:

I love how this one turned out. I find it very endearing how hard I was trying to learn to love myself again. I’m just sort of poking fun at the process of attempting to be kind to myself.

“Jill Says”:

Jill is my therapist. When it felt like most of my sources of security went out the window, she was a real grounding force for me. We had a lot of difficult conversations that really helped me be real with myself.

“Where Do I Go from Here?”:

This song really sums me up as a person. It’s a healthy dose of cynicism, humor, disillusionment, dreamy nostalgia, and what I consider a very realistic kind of hope. I am probably my biggest critic besides my dad, and I can say I am very proud of this song.

Caroline Rose Breaks Down New Album The Art of Forgetting Track by Track: Exclusive
Grace Ann Natanawan

Popular Posts

Subscribe to Consequence’s email digest and get the latest breaking news in music, film, and television, tour updates, access to exclusive giveaways, and more straight to your inbox.