No Medium, by Rosali

No Medium

by Rosali

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BikeBoy29 Her voice, the vulnerability within, and a glorious sound, not overproduced but natural. 'Tender Heart' gets me - resonates in a way that is sad and glorious simultaneously. Discordant guitars behind a clean acoustic and voice ballad. Love her voice, her lyrics. Great album. Favorite track: Tender Heart.

Kyle O'Reilly Incredibly good shit. Little bit of NY & Crazy Horse, little bit of softer stuff. All killer. Favorite track: Pour Over Ice.

jmand300 Rosali’s smooth, smoky voice conveys a cool assuredness, even as she embraces vulnerability in rock ballads about fraying relationships, self-sabotage and loss. Recorded with the talented musicians of the David Nance Group, No Medium transports you to the front row of an intimate live performance, commanding your full attention and lingering in your memory. Favorite track: Pour Over Ice.

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1.	Mouth 03:48	lyrics	buy track
Here is a mouth, saying your name Come in closer, and I’ll say it again Wish I were better at hiding my hand Want to protect the feeling before it begins East of the river I was travelling on Watch me lie, undone Rest me in a forest, overgrown Until I am free of all that I’ve known Doesn’t it feel like love? Doesn’t it remind you of that? Doesn’t it belong to you? Doesn’t belong to me like it used to Face me again, face me and say Face me with love or go away Here is a mouth... Do you rely on your doubt? Doesn’t it remind you of love? Doesn’t it feel like that? Doesn’t it belong to you? Doesn’t belong to me like it used to Doesn’t belong to me like it used to
2.	Bones 04:45	lyrics	buy track
Attractive like some firelight Drew me in and I lost sight Of what’s important and what’s right Faking again, and why? So I’ll gather my bones And go back home And be alone. Be alone. Watch the window for the light that creeps Turn me over, I’m not asleep I wanted love but that’s what you’d keep For yourself, not for me. So I’ll gather my bones And go back home And be alone. Be alone. Through the darkness of the field I walk through without yielding To the rest of the feelings I’m carrying Yeah I’ll gather my bones And go back home And be alone. Be alone.
3.	Pour Over Ice 03:10	lyrics	buy track
Lately I do not remember you Quite as well as I once was able to Feeling blind behind my eyes Blend up my brain and pour it over ice Heeded the call, I watched the shadows fall And begged for the pieces of a cruel and callous heart With remorse barreling down Making it harder now that you’re not around Maybe I didn’t care enough Or can’t remember Chasing small pleasures Making fire from embers Not enough fuel to sustain Not enough room to contain Not enough time to change Rearrange Rearrange Waking up singing the refrain Trying to gain my senses after the dream Oh you know you made quite the show But I can’t picture it anymore I, I just wanted to say goodbye
4.	Waited All Day 03:34	lyrics	buy track
Feel the amplitude of my solitude Want to be the one Who gets called upon I waited all day, waited all day Take the quietness My nervousness And I’d imagine Something close to it I waited all day, waited all day I’d be gloriously Adorned in all your jewelry The finery You found me I waited all day, waited all day Put no thought to the afterlife Don’t go asking, again I dream about those spaces in my sleep If I can hold on, and then I would tell to you What I wanted to And when I’m lying there I do I still think of you I waited all day, waited all day See I’m trying to deal With your sex appeal If I shrug it off I still Feel what I feel I waited all day, waited all day I waited all day, waited all day
5.	All This Lightning 03:09	lyrics	buy track
Fell asleep on the floor again Just to ground our sense of things I wanna slow dance with you To someone who can really sing All this lightning ain’t frightening to me All this lightning ain’t frightening to me Put myself squarely there Freaking out over nothingness I wanna wrap my legs around your neck Finding pleasure in our recklessness All this lightning ain’t frightening to me All this lightning ain’t frightening to me I wanna slide up next to you I want to hear all about it babe I like our close way to talking No readymades All this lightning ain’t frightening to me All this lightning ain’t frightening to me All this lightning ain’t frightening to me All this lightning ain’t frightening to me
6.	Whisper 03:18	lyrics	buy track
Backsliding, Overriding Waiting for night Don’t mind even if I tried To understand what’s right Everybody knows Everybody sees Everybody says Caught in a whisper Do you even notice? If I knew you, tell me How to be that fortunate If I only knew, well before I’d get away Everybody knows Everybody sees Everybody says Caught in a whisper Do you even notice? Slow motion, eyes open Been waiting for days Let the water fill, my happiness And wash me away Smoke another one Where is my trust? It’s been burning away Caught in a whisper, do you even notice? Everybody knows Everybody sees Everybody says Caught in a whisper Do you even notice? No you don’t know.
7.	If Not For Now 04:32	lyrics	buy track
You make me crazy But I won’t let you go Not until it’s over It’s clearer now baby We can have fun for awhile Come, let’s dance around blindly If not for now, then for later If not for now, then for later If not for now, then for later Had some visions Pretty pictures, pretty dreams Got twisted along the way But so sets in the mind When given space, given time Do what you do, keep moving If not for now, then for later If not for now, then for later If not for now, then for later
8.	Whatever Love 04:36	lyrics	buy track
Say whatever you will I won’t be bothered this time I’ve found faith in a feeling That’s better aligned Say whatever you long for You’ve got nothing to hide Let’s get on to the next thing baby Cuz I”m tangled inside Whatever love does to me Whatever love does to me I’ll be the fool you set free What your love does to me Where am I to understand? Where am I to call? You’ve got nothing on your hands now And I won’t bear it all Say whatever you will And pay me no mind I’ve found peace in the effort And it’s smoothing out time Whatever love does to me Whatever love does to me I’ll be the fool you set free What your love does to me Holding tight to something warm I reminded you once more That I’m fine on my own As I was before All I have is your silence Fuck off with your fear Say whatever you will Cuz I’m ready to hear What your love does to me What your love does to me I’ll be the fool you set free Whatever love does to me Whatever love does to me Whatever love does to me I’ll be the fool you set free What your love does to me
9.	Your Shadow 03:29	lyrics	buy track
Felt your shadow, no passing thought Let it hold me, yeah I am caught For the moment that you brought The relentless reminder of things to be wrought I was taken with sorrow Oh the nights I’ve lain awake If you stare into darkness Soon you’ll be seeing The light start to break Find the line That divines What is mine and What’s lost to time Be careful with what you care for More fragile with what you’ve got Nothing’s stable, except of course The regrets in reflection becoming something more Maybe when I start believing it becomes something more
10.	Tender Heart 05:50	lyrics	buy track
Oh tenderheart, I know you don’t mean what you say Oh tend this fire, why would you make it this way? By and large we’ve kept things together By and large we’ve stormed all this weather Why the false wildness? Why do we need this? Oh terrible dream, I set the stage and the scene Oh tear me apart, I’m already loose at the seams By and large we’ve kept things together By and large we’ve stormed all this weather Why the false wildness? Why do we need this? I make my mind up all the time Each time it’s different The roads all lead out The craters in me They form and recede Through my heart Raging through my heart And in time, we’d shower our friends With thanks and forgiveness We’d make our amends I don’t mind, spending my time Like this

about

While the collection of songs on Philadelphia/Michigan musician Rosali’s electrifying third LP, No Medium, explores the often dark territory of loss, death, sexuality, self-sabotage, and addiction, there is a surprising lightness to its sonic being. Backed by members of the David Nance Group, Rosali (Long Hots, Wandering Shade, Monocot) wades through the emotional mire with infectious, earworm melodies led by her luminous voice. With their rich, raw instrumentation, these rock ballads sound like the resilience discovered in facing one’s darkest moments, the assurance of the calm and clarity that comes after the storm. As she sings on the second track, “Bones,” “Through the darkness of the field / I walk through without yielding / To the rest of the feelings / I’m carrying.” With her confident song craft, Rosali illustrates the ability to push through, moving toward something greater without being destroyed by the weight of trauma.

Rosali wrote the bulk of these songs in January of 2019 while on a self-imposed two week residency in the hills of South Carolina. Alone in an old farmhouse, she experienced supernatural events and faced her own demons in the deepest darkness. Perhaps as a result, there is a boldness that permeates the album, a daring vulnerability in both the lyrical themes and their musical accompaniment. Rosali says, “I approach guitar playing the same intuitive way I sing, which is profoundly spiritual for me. Where words fail, the guitar becomes the conduit for raw feelings, providing a direct connection to them. I’m constantly working on being fearless in my work, which means showing the rough side, the mistakes along with the triumphs.”

While writing No Medium, Rosali was inspired by harmonographs—swinging pendulums that create beautiful illustrations of the mathematics of music—considering how the mind, too, creates images through song. She imagined herself as the swinging pendulum—“a body suspended from a fixed point” (Encyclopedia Britannica), governed by the forces surrounding her. She thought about the pendulum’s relationship to time, movement, and even its use in divination practices. The album’s title, lifted from Charlotte Brontë’s, Jane Eyre, resonated with this vision: “I know no medium: I never in my life have known any medium in my dealings with positive, hard characters, antagonistic to my own, between absolute submission and determined revolt. I have always faithfully observed the one, up to the very moment of bursting, sometimes with volcanic vehemence, into the other.” With the multiple meanings of “medium”—as middle ground, a term for psychics, and as the material of artistic expression—No Medium felt like the appropriate name, describing how the self is shaped by the patterns of life .

The influences for the sound of No Medium reflect this pairing of assured vulnerability, in the stylistic coherence of Bob Dylan’s Desire, the tender delivery in Iain Matthews’ Journey From Gospel Oak, the strut and swagger of Bowie’s Hunky Dory, the ambition and beauty of Gene Clark’s No Other, and the playful catharsis of Harry Nilsson’s Nilsson Schmilsson. The Richard and Linda Thompson-esque album opener “Mouth,” places Rosali within both a physical and emotional space. “East of the river I was travelling on / watch me lie, undone / rest me in a forest, overgrown / until I am free of all that I’ve known,” she sings. There is movement, both within a cityscape, and in her outlook on love. Speaking of her thought process when writing the song, she says, “I imagine confidently walking away from the past, toward a new approach to love and intimacy to achieve a closer relationship with myself.”

In “Pour Over Ice,” Rosali explores her relationship with alcohol and her former reliance upon it as a social lubricant to quell her social anxiety, an energizer to keep moving, a means to cope and self-medicate, and most addictively, to lure out her wild side as a free flowing, good time girl. While drinking helped her through some shitty times, it eventually got the upper hand and became an insatiable hole within. She says, “The ‘you’ in the song is really me, talking to that component of myself struggling with drinking and self-sabotage, caught up in the cycle, and all the bad choices I made.” She sings, “Maybe I didn’t care enough / or can’t remember / chasing small pleasures / making fire from embers.” Rosali wanted her lead guitar on this track to simultaneously sound like a slow motion car crash propelling her through the day, and the sound of a gnawing hunger for something more.

credits

released May 7, 2021

Released by SPINSTER. Engineered by James Schroeder and featuring Schroeder (Simon Joyner, DNG, Connor Oberst), Kevin Donahue (Simon Joyner), David Nance, Noah Sterba, Colin Duckworth, and Daniel Knapp, the album was recorded in 10 days and the raw immediacy of the music is palpable across these 10 tracks.

Added adornment was contributed by Philadelphia's Robbie Bennett (War on Drugs) on organ and keys, and Matt Barrick (The Walkmen, Jonathan Fire Eater, Muzz) makes a percussion cameo on “Whisper,” which was tracked at Philly’s Silent Partner Studio, where No Medium was mixed by Quentin Stoltzfus (Mazarin, Light Heat). The open creative collaboration elevated the songs, resulting in the exciting, vibrant sound of the album.

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about

Rosali North Carolina

Rosali makes songs that take their time in revealing their full power. What might appear to be restrained, introspective compositions will stretch slowly outward, snagging your attention with a sideways guitar lead or an exceptionally raw lyric you didn’t catch the first time around. Her softly glowing music is deceptively fluid, able to appear patient and refined at the edge of unraveling. ... more

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