Here we are in 2017, and we’re still having to point out the discrepancies between men and women in professional opportunities available to them and salary. It’s embarrassing. In the music business, it’s no different. There are only two paths for a young woman to take in this industry: sell your image (your body, sexuality, brashness or weirdness) to get ahead, or shun the image makers and try to make a go with sincerity. For herself, Lucy Rose has chosen the latter, and it’s worked gangbusters for her.

From her early days backing mates Bombay Bicycle Club’s acoustic tracks through her two studio albums and a live record last December, she’s never wavered from her effortless position of disarming innocence. Speak to her, listen to her records: you can tell she is, warts and all, genuine. When she sings about heartbreak in that clear, sweet voice of hers, you can relate in a heartbeat because she’s the girl next door, even as she nears the big 3-0. In a world where pop tarts selling sex in fake eyelashes and kilos of makeup are a dime a dozen, Lucy Rose is a refreshing antidote. Next month, she will release her third album ‘Something’s Changing’, her first with Communion Records.

The newest single to preview the upcoming LP, ‘No Good at All’, was reportedly written before Rose’s debut tour of Latin America last year. It’s an excellent example of the deftness of her songwriting ability. Is it a love song? Is it an admission of imperfection? It is a message of surrender? Okay, do you give up? It’s all of these things, thrown into one song. Despite the disparate missives, somehow, it works. In the line “I’m not the oil painting you once bought” and later with “I’m nothing like the vision you once formed”, Rose is clear about being her own woman. She’s embracing who she is and what she has become. Yet she fully admits to wanting passion in a relationship, confessing she’s given in and essentially has become weak in the face of love: “Now when you’re looking at me / I swore I’d never fall / it does no good / no good at all”.

The instrumentation of the single is sympathetic to the sensitive subject matter, gently propelled forward by Rose’s melodic voice and the gaiety of repeated organ chords and backing vocals. Appropriately, the mellow track has been given a full psychedelic treatment in its promo video: plenty of pink and orange décor, big hair and flowery shirts, with Rose holding court with a microphone, sat at the piano. Understated, yet packing an emotional punch, ‘No Good at All’ whets the appetite for ‘Something’s Changing’ in 2 weeks’ time.

8/10

‘No Good at All’ from Lucy Rose is out now. You can also check out ‘Is This Called Home’ and ‘Floral Dresses’ featuring the Staves, both of which have also been released as tasters ahead of the album. ‘Something’s Changing’ will be available from the 7th of July from Communion Records. Have a read through our past coverage of the straight as an arrow singer/songwriter through this link.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The post Single Review: Lucy Rose – No Good at All appeared first on There Goes The Fear, a UK/US/IE Music Web site.