Lily Rose - I Know What I Want
Lily Rose takes a look back on all her accomplishments with her album I Know What I Want -- which demonstrates Rose's ability to pick high-energy songs as well as some stunners, writes Bee Delores.
Lily Rose has always known what she's wanted. For nearly five years, she's poured her heart and soul into her latest album. I Know What I Want serves as a testament to her journey to get to this moment. It hasn't been easy, often spanning "the spectrum of peaks and valleys," she shares in a press statement, but she's come out the other side far more self-assured and inspired. "I feel like I finally made it," Rose adds.
Promo track "Of Course I Do" jumpstarts Rose's new album as the very first release. It's a confessional piece wrapped in radio sensibility with a melody that slides down smooth. "I've never asked your friends if you still ask about me / Found a new bar in a part of town you'd never find me," she sings, setting the deeply personal stage from the outset. In truth, she admits that, of course, she wants to call up her ex, pull down their road, and "disappear for an hour or two," even though she says she doesn't.
That tug-of-war permeates much of the record. "Even after all the he said, she said
I don't, you did / Truth is, I still want you more than anything," she sings in the opening track, "Even After Everything." Other moments such as "End Like This," "Seein' Blue," and "East to West" ebb and flow with the emotional tides that come with a breakup. Recovering from the pain can only be achieved through time, as cliché as it is.
While the album, largely, might not feel very inspired, several songs demonstrate Rose's ability to select truly great songs to record—"Climbing Magnolias" and "I'll Let You Know When I Get There" are real stunners, lyrically and vocally. Then, "Work Like That," which Rose co-wrote with songwriting giants Hillary Lindsey and Gordie Sampson, emerges as among Rose's best career moments. "We’re oil and water, fire and ice... a nail in a tire, a low and a high / Two things not meant to be but damn I want you, wish that we were," she sighs.
"When it comes to my catalog of songs, a lot of them were written to bring energy to the live show," Rose says. That's pretty evident with most of I Know What I Want. There's an electricity coursing in its thematic veins that's infectious and groovy. It might not be the most interesting or complex album, as a whole, but flashes of brilliance make it worth checking out at least once.
