CQAF - JOSH ROUSE

Type : Festivals

Singer-songwriter Josh Rouse’s journey has taken him from his rural Oshkosh, Nebraska home through a stint in Nashville and now to his adopted hometown of Valencia, Spain, where he wrote and recorded much of his upcoming album The Embers of Time (out April 7 on Yep Roc). He says the songs were inspired by an existential crisis—he calls it “my surreal expat therapy record”—and on the lead single “Some Days I’m Golden All Night,” he grapples with some of his faults, but it’s far from a heavy listen.

It's also one of the finest collections in a celebrated career that's earned him plaudits everywhere from the NY Times to NPR for his"pop-folk introspection"and "string of remarkable records." Hailed for his "sharp wit"by Rolling Stone and as "a talent to outrank Ryan Adams or Conor Oberst"by Uncut, Rouse has long since solidified his status as a songwriter of the highest caliber over his ten preceding studio releases.

Q called his acclaimed critical breakout album '1972'"the most intimate record of the year,"EW dubbed the follow-up album 'Nashville' "persistently gorgeous," and PopMatters called his most recent record, 2013's 'The Happiness Waltz,' "a big contender for Rouse's best work."

On The Embers of Time, Rouse offsets the confessional lyrics with an arrangement of vibraphone, steel guitar, and gently propulsive drums that gives his bluntly honest self-assessment a remarkable buoyancy, as well as a more-than-passing resemblance to the softly rocking countrypolitan sound that came out of Nashville during the ’70s.

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