Album Review: Frankie Rose Shows LA Can Be A “Cage Tropical”

The life of a musician, at least for most, is not glamorous. If you are not Justin Bieber or Rihanna doing billion dollar tours, you probably are circuiting around feeding yourself off of music more than money. The artist’s life is part struggle/ part dream and Frankie Rose’s Cage Tropical is a testament to both.

Rose wrote Cage Tropical after returning to LA from a national tour with little funds and a waning optimism. She had gone from serenading crowds to serving them tacos from a catering truck. If you are like, “Huh?”, so was she, which led her to write an album that blends the sunny sounds of LA life with the darker realities of its fantasies. So many artists flock to LA or NY because they are meccas for music, and inevitable stops in your growing music career. Yet, tracks like, “Trouble”, “Decontrol”, “Epic Slack”, and “Cage Tropical show that nothing is as it seems. For this, Frankie Rose drifts and reverberates her vocals to appear as it she is swimming in white noise, and trying to listen for wisdom. Her sounds have an 80’s noir effect like, in “Love In Rockets” and “Game To Play”, which makes listeners feel like a pair of detectives looking through “palm tree keys” and sandy synths to investigate whether Frankie Rose bought a “dream” or had a “nightmare” sold to her. Frankly, what person does not dream for their self, and need a few hard knocks to realize they are either dreaming wrong or foolishly. In a world that says, “Dream Bigger”, lyrically, Frankie Rose attempts to dream better. Part of her heart’s break and eventual healing comes from her belief that love of a dream makes it easier, quicker, and more protected from suffering. Yet, “Art Bell”, “Dancing Down The Hall”, and “Dyson Sphere” are like pages turning in, probably, the funkiest self-help guide every made. With a sound that feels electro meets paranormal, Rose’s journey to fortifying her dream is one to listen.

I love Frankie Rose’s voice, in part, because it surfs through her music. She truly sounds like a batch of clear, hidden recordings being seductively muddled unto your ears to reveal “The Truth”: dreams are hard, and, sometimes, its not about dreaming bigger and more as much as dreaming more healthily. Nobody has ever achieved what they wanted without work, tears, and a lot of searching for self-love. Thus, on August 11, get Frankie Rose’ Cage Tropical to begin your search. Click Here For More Information.