Esther Rose is excited to announce the release of her new album Safe to Run on 21st April 2023. The 11-track set was produced by Ross Farbe in New Orleans, LA and Placitas, New Mexico and is the follow up to 2021’s acclaimed How Many Times. Alongside longtime collaborators Farbe and Lyle Werner, Safe to Run also features the acclaimed New Orleans based band Silver Synthetic on many songs, Cameron Snyder of The Deslondes, as well as Alynda Segarra of Hurray for the Riff Raff on the title track, a gorgeous duet that directly merges the personal with the global, superimposing feelings of spiritual displacement onto the larger, looming dread of climate grief.
Safe to Run is the quiet culmination of years spent fully immersed in a developing artistry and presents Rose’s always vividly detailed emotional scenes with new levels of clarity and control. Her songwriting transfigures the chaos and uncertainty of a life in progress, but here she introduces a newfound pop element that attaches unshakably catchy hooks to even the darkest stretches of the journey. The album’s production takes a giant step forward. The open-air, live-in-the-room sound she tended towards in the past has been exchanged for an exploration of multitracking and overdubs.
She has also shared the video for the album’s first single, “Chet Baker.” Of the song, Rose says, “Someone sent me a DM, asking ‘do you remember me.’ I was transported into a decade-old memory; a weird weekend with a crew of dangerous college preps, a car crash. What came out is this short study of my townie life in Ann Arbor. As I was writing this song, it occurred to me how lucky I was to have survived that time of willful recklessness. I wanted to empathize with my younger self, like, ‘it’s alright, you were 23. You were out of control. I got you now. You’re okay.’”
After spending her formative years in Michigan, Rose relocated to New Orleans and got her start in music while awash in the unparalleled energy of the city’s scene. Over the course of her first three records, an infatuation with traditional country gradually evolved into a more distinctive style and increasingly personal material. Rose’s music traced her changes as she moved through stages, studios, and home addresses, and she eventually left New Orleans for Santa Fe, New Mexico where the two-year writing process for Safe to Run unfolded. Making the transition to this new environment after spending the better part of a decade building a life somewhere else demanded looking around and taking stock.
Making the leap from the comfortable to the unknown defines every aspect of the album. All the heaviness, sweetness, levity, and self-discovery that had led up to that point began funneling into new songs that moved slower in order to dig deeper. Rose says, “My challenge every time I picked up the pen was: not another heartbreak song, look around you. Writing from depths never explored and feeling sometimes like I was losing my mind, a softness unfurled. I’ve moved out of a chaotic, transitional place. I’m not running anymore. This album feels different to me than everything I’ve made before it. But who knows? I’ve traded hurricanes for wildfires.”
Esther Rose’s Safe to Run will be available across digital platforms, compact disc, and standard black vinyl. A limited Pink vinyl edition will be available at Independent Retailers while a limited to 300 Pink vinyl edition autographed by Esther Rose is available for pre-order NOW via NEW WEST RECORDS.
Esther Rose Safe to Run Tracklist:
1. Stay
2. Chet Baker
3. Spider
4. Safe to Run (feat. Hurray For The Riff Raff)
5. St. Francis Waltz
6. New Magic II
7. Dream Girl
8. Insecure
9. Levee Song
10. Full Value
11. Arm’s Length