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Photo: Allen Jiang

With a pain-stricken voice that belies her age, ancestrally-channeled funk, and lyrics that speak to a life deeply lived, Baby Rose is bringing soul music back to its roots for a new generation on her newest album Through and Through.

Soaring to the number one spot on iTunes, Through and Through is burning incense, closed blinds with the sun fighting to peer in, a morning laid tangled in silk sheets and love’s resentment. There’s no chaser to mend the burning in the throat: it’s a raw, unfiltered account of Baby Rose’s inner world in the thick of 2020. As the earth stopped its spinning and we questioned the promise of time, like many who let music be their vice, Rose poured her emotion into this work of art.

“It means everything," shares Baby Rose. "Through and Through shows different sides of me; pieces to make up a whole. I dive through different sonic spaces, sometimes genres, to honor different phases of my journey. In a cyclical way, it serves as a reminder that everything, good and bad, is necessary, and every iteration of me deserves peace.”

Opening strong with the track “Go,” her vocals are captivatingly potent, paralyzed with the fear of abandonment. There’s no distance between her and the emotion—she sings as the feeling. It’s why so many find themselves in the folds of her music, because she connects with the aching and longing in our stomachs, rather than our minds. “Stop The Bleeding” is a Nina Simone-reminiscent stand-out track, encapsulating pain and deep sorrow so viscerally it’s difficult to wipe off your skin post-listen.

Having already crossed paths on Dreamville’s Revenge of the Dreamers III, the album features Smino on the upbeat “I Won’t Tell,” a groovy track that stands as Through and Through’s dance relief. Georgia Anne Muldrow is another feature, bringing her blues to the kaleidoscopic track “Fight Club.” Otherwise, this album is Baby Rose’s story told by Baby Rose, an experimental neo-soul reckoning.

The Fayetteville-raised artist is only 28, yet her haunting voice seems to have survived lifetimes. There’s a wisdom in her bones that translates into her music, whether spoken or felt. As she gears up to bring her funk on the road this spring on the 'Through the Soul North American Tour' alongside Q, it’s obvious that this is a moment in her career to take in every color of, before the world becomes irreversibly aware of her incomparability. 

Listen to Through and Through below: