Melody Thomas says hello - and goodbye - to Seattle seven-piece Rose Windows.
Bucking the austerity trend with their robust seven-person line-up, Seattle band Rose Windows released their first album Sun Dogs on Sub Pop Records in 2013. Their self-titled follow-up is a compelling record - mixing the familiar instrumentation of blues and rock with Eastern scales and stirring touches on the flute, all held together by the unusual but ultimately alluring voice of lead singer Rabia Shaheen Qazi. One of the criticisms of Rose Windows’ first album was that it lacked lyrical direction.The lyrics of this album, though, are decidedly less ‘stream-of-consciousness’ - and in cutting off the excess Rose Windows have made their messages a lot clearer. While it was that first album that Cheveyo described as being about, “the everyday blues that Capitalism and it’s man religion bring on all of us” - I think it’s this album that that sentence best describes.
Songs Featured: Bodhi Song, Blind, Strip Mall Babylon, The Old Crow, Hirami, Glory Glory
