Frankie Rose whisks us away to dreamworld with her voice.
Frankie Rose toured with groups like the Vivian Girls and the Dum Dum Girls in the late 2000s. She saw it all and felt the rush: the shrill excitement of fans vibrating through the air; the stage lights that radiate their faces as sweat droplets flow down your temples; the warming sensations that penetrate their bodies as she serenades the crowd with her voice. She was there.
Yet, life doesn’t always work how we want it to. Frankie Rose is back in LA. and she works in catering. “I moved to L.A., drama ensued and I ended up on a catering truck. I was like, how can this be my life after being a touring musician and living off of music. I had really lost my way and I thought I was totally done.”
Cage Tropical is about redemption. The album features upbeat melodies and dreamy tunes. Presenting an ensemble of mixed instruments, reverb and synth hooks through out, the album is reminiscent of ’80s pop and all its buoyant energy. “I love old sci-fi …’80s sci-fi movies with a John Carpenter soundtrack, with silly synths.” The tracks exude dreamy, vapid vibes that swift the listener off into sunsets and warm tidal breezes. Frankie Rose has an ethereal voice that eases away worries and real-world troubles, where suddenly we find ourselves devoid of our egos and completely at one with the world. Motorik beats produce a trance-like state as the listeners let go of reality and enter into another realm.
Without listening to the lyrics, the tracks melt away our pain and agitations. But upon actually examining the words she is singing, one hears a story about a woman who is down on her luck and struggling to get back on her feet. From “I’m wasting my life here,” in “Love in Process,” or “Everything you know is a lie,” to “Red Museum.” We are met with apprehensions, angst, disappointments, and uncertainties — quite opposite from what one feels just by listening to the melodies.
That is the magic of Frankie Rose. She manages to endow everyday life — everyday struggle — with sparks of marvel and wonder. Life itself is a delight, and one should enjoy the journey as it is. “Misery turned into something good. The whole record to me is a redemption record and it is the most positive one I’ve made.”
With her voice and meditative optimism, Frankie Rose whisks us into a dreamland, where bright, neon colored clouds cocoon us as multicolor sunlight dances and darts on all surfaces, creating a dance room with moving backgrounds of shadows and colors. Slowly, we close our eyes as faint rainbow raindrops lightly trickle onto us, and we wake up to reality, refreshed and hopeful, ready to redeem ourselves from whatever trivialities once haunted us.
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