The touching “Oriole” is an emotive success from Rachel Rose, a Connecticut-born artist presently based in Brooklyn. “Oriole” moves with qualities that are both mourning and accepting of life’s big stages. The chorus, “it’s not a desert to the rain,” is touched lovingly with strings and the constant dreamy guitar line. Thematically, I’m reminded fondly of Prefab Sprout’s “Grief Built the Taj Mahal.” The second half of “Oriole” expands delightfully, the strings assuming more prominence approaching the three-minute mark especially, exuding a symphonic and anthemic push as the multi-layered vocal passion takes hold. “Oriole” is a moving success from the rising Rachel Rose.
The track’s meaningful background is elaborated upon more below:
While mourning the death of a loved one, Rachel recalls asking her grandmother, “If you could be reincarnated as any other living being, what would it be?”. Her grandmother confidently responds, “A Baltimore Oriole”. Oriole is about cherishing life and accepting death. In this moving piece, Rachel Rose reckons with loss by fervently declaring all life is connected, small things can have great importance, and our loved ones are never far from us if we carry their loving memory in our hearts.
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“Oriole” and other memorable tracks from this month can also be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of June 2021’ Spotify playlist.
