Lexie Rose – 20 Weeks
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/3FXydnYYaQVHRFNHkFqqpD
It’s a little staggering to imagine what Lexie Rose might be capable of. She’s sixteen years old and writing songs her peers ten years older would be proud to write while seemingly evolving by leaps and bounds with each new bit of exposure she receives via live performance or recording. She eschews the pop trappings common to young performers in favor of more complex, moodier songwriting that balances the personal and universal with great flair. There’s certainly more than a suggestion of the personal in the way she tackles the lyric and her phrasing gets inside the song in a way that makes the lyrics much more than they might seem to be superficially. Her latest single “20 Weeks” represents the latest great leap forward in her songwriting and performance potential – she, frankly, emerges from this outing sounding like a fully realized artist who will continually push the boundaries of her talents.
There’s a light orchestrated quality to the song that elevates it to the level of top shelf pop while avoiding even a whiff of self indulgence or pretension. It reaches a natural crescendo with the song’s chorus and Rose’s voice responds in kind with just the right amount of vocal force appropriate to the song’s lyrics and musical mood. The words are fleshed out enough that we get a firm sense of what the track is about, but there’s also enough suggestion filling the song that we can read multiple interpretations into the song valid to our own life. Much like the arrangement, Rose’s lyrics are lean and never waste even a single syllable. “20 Weeks” has a clear narrative that obviously means a great deal to Rose, but her talents are obviously broad based enough that the song is a much more all encompassing experience than what we might otherwise expect.
The weave of instruments that go into making this song work is achieved with seemingly little effort and the relaxed way that the song morphs throughout its duration never comes off as a stretch for the listener. The same confidence coming across in her singing comes out of the musical arrangement as well and the dedication Rose and the musicians show towards conveying the song’s story with zero dross results in the song being even better than it might have been otherwise. “20 Weeks” has a well rounded, fully immersive approach to performance that brings listeners in from early on and has a cinematic way of conveying emotion through music and singing that makes it something very different than your average effort in this vein. Lexie Rose’s artistic powers are considerable and astonishingly well developed for any age, let alone sixteen years old. Her latest single “20 Weeks” moves well between straight autobiography, the feeling that this song is pulled from the marrow of her life, and yet capable of speaking to nearly anyone’s experiences. This sort of quality is rare no matter the performer, no matter their age.
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhgu-NMjEcg
Mindy McCall
