Everything clicks on Safe to Run, the fourth album from singer, songwriter, and perpetual searcher Esther Rose. It’s 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. As with previous work, 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.

Rose takes an unblinking look at her own vulnerabilities as well as more universal concerns, somehow never taking herself too seriously in the process. This manifests as a critique of the insidious sexism of the music industry on “Dream Girl,” but quickly melts into a hazy memoryscape of the dive bar drama and suspended hovering of her early 20s on “Chet Baker.” The song “Safe to Run” (a gorgeous duet with Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra) directly merges the personal with the global, superimposing feelings of spiritual displacement onto the larger, looming dread of climate grief. Rose breathes in the ecstasy of the natural world in one line and makes fun of herself a few bars later. There are ghosts in the room for most of her songs, but she’s invited them in and is cracking jokes with them over a drink or two.

Ultimately all of these new advancements become twinkles of light in the background as they fold into the big picture impact of the songs themselves. Esther Rose translates her world into eleven curious and captivating scenes. While the songs are stunning one by one, absorbing Safe to Run as a whole feels like witnessing something taking shape, experiencing the headspins of the elevation and the slow return to equilibrium as the clouds start clearing. 

Produced by - Ross Farbe
Recorded by - Ross Farbe at The Tigermen Den in New Orleans, LA and Gringo Gulch in Placitas, NM
Mastered by - Marc Whitmore in Santa Fe, NM

Lyle Werner - fiddle
Coleman Akin - fiddle
Lonnie Leary - drums
Meredith Stoner - bass
Nick Cohon - electric guitar
Johnny ‘Up’ Shadid - pedal steel
Alynda Segarra - harmonies
Cameron Snyder - percussion, synth, organ on tracks
Lucas Bogner - drums
Peter Campanelli - bass
Chris Lyons - acoustic guitar
Kunal Prakash - electric guitar

Management - Tony Presley

Photos by Brandon Soder
Artwork + Design by Jackson Tupper

All songs written and arranged by Esther Rose
Covertly Canadian Publishing (BMI)
except
“Stay” (lyrics by Esther Rose & Sam Doores)
Covertly Canadian Publishing / Feed Of Man (BMI)
and
“Safe to Run” (arranged by Esther Rose & Nick Cohon)
Covertly Canadian Publishing / Sentric (BMI)

Cameron Snyder appears courtesy of New West Records
Kunal Prakash, Chris Lyrons, and Lucas Bogner appear courtesy of Third Man Records
Alynda Segarra appears courtesy of Warner Records