Poppy Rose, Ready Now….

Not being able to hold a note myself, I tip my hat to any musician in a band. Yet there’s something so much more valiant, rudimentary, and intrinsically honest about the solo singer-songwriter, the personal touch of an acoustic performer; as the title of her debut album suggests, Poppy Rose has this…..

The key to a good singer-songwriter lies in the proximity of thoughts between the artist and their audience, and how they relate. If done well, the listener feels they know a little something about the singer. I’ve never met Poppy. I came across her music via a Facebook chat. But I’ve come away after one sitting of her new album, I’m Ready Now, thinking that I know her, and that’s the goal rather than the benchmark of an amazing acoustic singer-songwriter….. 

The album opens with No In Between, elucidating Poppy doesn’t do moderation, she is an all-or-nothing girl, and we’re off, getting to know the innermost thoughts of this twenty-five-year-old creative soul from Bath. 

It’s thoughtfully played out prose, with intelligent metaphors which build throughout the ten tracks, but more importantly, it’s dreamily unique and divinely expressed. The metaphors of the intimacy in the second tune are rinsed in personal observations, the third tune, more dejected in romantic theme; Fool is her first single released from the album. If these are characters in her narrative they appear to bear her own crosses and devotions equally, either this or Poppy can write classic fiction akin to Jane Austen!

Similar to what Chippenham’s Meg is putting out in both content and delivery, it’s first-hand folk, idiosyncratic reflection, and we love what Meg is putting out, it’s impossible not too, in my honest opinion. The confusion, trickery and learning of it within the game of love never wanes with age, but there’s something coming of age in Poppy’s subjects, perhaps none more so than The Wrong One, which even states her naivety in the words. If you’re not young (like me!) you still relate, because you lived it, and survived to tell the tale, though, Poppy tells it expressively in haunting songs, and it’s something to behold.

Poppy poses in Resolution Records in Bath, looking deservedly chuffed! You can find limited edition gold glitter cassettes of “I’m Ready Now” in there!

Five tunes in and we’ve swapped guitar for piano, complimenting her heart-clenching and soulful vocals better may be debatable, either instrument works, but piano always rewards it a more europic ambience, as the songs tend to sit in the more dejected moods of Poppy. Seven songs in now, Fragile suggests this honesty, the title track following this lifts the pessimism.…slightly, but whatever the mood, Poppy sets it sublimely and evocatively.

If ‘body shaming’ is a Gen Z construct, it is so only by modern terminology. If you think mocking people for their body shape or size is a new thing you’ll be sadly mistaken. But it is something highlighted as harassment far less abstract and taboo nowadays, and dealing with such bullying inspires Poppy’s penultimate song on I’m Ready Now. I Love my Body is a poignant reflection of wellbeing, a calling to anyone suffering misgivings about themselves physically. Whilst still a solitary deliberation, this track is perhaps the standout as it contains a universal message.

What surprises me most is Spotify has this tune, I Love my Body, listed as a previous single, dated 2019. I know I’m not so good at maths, but if this places Poppy aged twenty when she wrote this, she is truly a prodigy. As I said at the beginning, I don’t know Poppy, but to express such a sentiment and deliver it so profoundly as a message to others at any young age, is nothing short of magical.

So to not leave us downhearted, Poppy’s final tune, Joy, is brimful of romantic optimism, including a geographical reference akin to Springsteen’s The River. This album is homemade lemonade, moreish, yet in recording one’s thoughts so young I believe, and hope we’re only skimming the surface of what is to come from this skilled wordsmith and performer. Have a listen, see what you think, because I’m blown away!

Find Poppy’s Music on Facebook or Instagram

LinkTree HERE

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Rooks; New Single From M3G

Chippenham folk singer-songwriter, M3G (because she likes a backward “E”) has a new single out tomorrow, Friday 19th December. Put your jingly bell cheesy tunes…

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