Ezza Rose Plugs In and Cranks the Volume on “No Means No”

Whether she’s leading her crack band through guitar rave-ups or languidly paced, head-in-the-clouds numbers, it’s clear that Rose’s band is currently very much a rock-’n’-roll project.

By Donovan Farley

Ezza Rose, No Means No (Self-Release)

[LADIES & GENTLEMEN, WE'RE COPING IN SPACE] Ezza Rose's progression as an artist has seen the songwriter evolve from a folkier, roots-focused sound to the expansive dream rock of her latest LP, No Means No. Rose's music is all the more interesting for these experiments in sound—whether she's leading her crack band through guitar rave-ups or languidly paced, head-in-the-clouds numbers, it's clear that Rose's band is currently very much a rock-'n'-roll project. Rose emphatically repeats the coda "Don't wanna tell you that no means no!" on the record's title track, as the band around her works themselves into an equally furious guitar-driven peak. A successful sea change in tone comes via the hypnotic post-coital buzz of "Baby, Come Down," a track so dreamy you almost miss the darkness at the heart of the song's lyrics. "Baby, come down, the sex was fine without it/Baby, come down, the music won't play without you," Rose coos over an arrangement that's at once colored with a tinge of dread and foreboding and perfect for slow dancing. Much like the world in which we live, the romance Rose sings about has the potential for great beauty. But you have to be able to wade through the darkness to find it.

SEE IT: Ezza Rose plays Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., with Bitch'n and Kendall Core, on Friday, March 9. 9 pm. $10. 21+. Get tickets here.

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