Most artists might find the idea of reinventing themselves each time they put out new music to be utterly terrifying, but most artists aren’t Caroline Rose. A fearless and restless creator with a true DIY spirit, Rose has been steadily finding new, different parts of themself over more than a decade. Now, with Gentling the Horse at the Walt Whitman Mall — their first release on their very own label, SUCK Records — they are once again shapeshifting.
As Rose has gradually been untangling themself from the traditional label and industry systems, finding innovative ways to release and perform their music, so too have they stretched the sonics in what a Caroline Rose song “should” or could be. Gentling the Horse is all punk rock fire and spit. Perfectly minimal production by the singular John Congleton gives Rose enough space to be explosive and experimental. Elastic vocal layering on “Chow Mein” and “Valery (please don’t be mad at me),” some of the album’s standout tales of melancholic and hilarious mess, show Rose’s ability to pack so much sound into little packages. Moments of anarchic vigor light up drum machine laden “Hello Again, Jim” and guitar shredder “RIDE (!!!),” while Rose’s deliciously sarcastic wit is a coping mechanism through dystopian times on “Cement Head” and “Goddamn Train.”
