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You are a 16-year-old girl,
disillusioned with the establishment, and you live in LA. What do you do next?
Write some of the most compelling rock in years, of course. Katy Rose is drawing
national attention thanks to her powerful songwriting and revealing lyrics
chronicling the dramas of the day-to-day life of an adolescent girl. On many of
the songs featured on Katy’s debut release, Because
I Can, tormented verses filled with conflict and frustration blend into
sing-along power choruses, sweet enough to make the Avril Lavignes and Michelle
Branches of the world take notice.
The strongest aspect of Katy’s songwriting is her honesty. She growls on the
album’s first track, “Overdrive,” “I’m six feet under the bondi tree
with my crap new age philosophy. Yeah, yeah, I’m California. Yeah, yeah, I’m
Independence.” The jumpy “Catch My Fall” starts off with a scream,
literally, before punching in with a driving chorus.
Katy does tend toward the dramatic. On “Snowflakes,” she moans like a lounge
singer, lamenting how she’ll never be, “The perfect blanket for someone else
to walk on.”
“Glow” and “Teaching
Myself to Dream” both sound very “Dawson Creek”-ready, songs that would be
the perfect audio backdrop for some teenage coming-of-age melodrama.
Katy
occasionally betrays her age. On “Watching the Rain,” she blandly raps about
how she wants to kiss the moon with her feet. The chorus, along with the
post-production noises, could easily be something off the Hillary Duff album.
Ultimately, Katy will find that as she grows, her songwriting will too, enabling
her to step outside the personal situations that envelope her and tell the
stories of other people. But the talent is certainly there now. An incredibly
strong sense of song, as well as a dynamic voice and introspective lyrics, make
Katy Rose one new artist to get on board with early.
~Joe Del Re
jdelre@bullz-eye.com
Also: Be
sure to read Mike Farley's feature on
Katy Rose!
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