From being an original member of the “manufactured pop” Brighton based group The Pipettes to part of Mark Ronson's recording and touring band Rose Elinor Dougall brings over a decade of experience of the indie end of pop to her second solo album 'Stellular'.

First track 'Colour of Water' opens with jangling guitars which morph into a shoegazzy-pop delight wrapping itself around Rose's distinctive chiming vocals. The minimalistic drum beats and jangling, angular guitars combine in the danceable 'Strange Warnings' and the title track, the chorus of which reminds me of St. Etienne at their most danceable. The majority of tracks were co-written and played by Rose and Oli Bayston of Boxed In and this collaboration adds a dance element to the alt-pop of the first four tracks.

The pace slows for the sophisticated pop of standout track 'Take Yourself With You' with its beautiful melody and breathy vocals. 'All at Once' contains OMD/ Human League-esque keyboards and more breathy vocals in the chorus “Everything at Once, Everything Tonight, Everything Tomorrow , Everything at Once, All at Once” and was written in collaboration with Sean Nicholas Savage.

Rose spoke to Rough Trade about working in collaborations “I've always looked for a partner in crime when it comes to recording my music, and I wanted to try and write a slightly less insular album this time around.”

The lovely chorus of 'Space To Be', “I want a love to lift me up high, To wreak havoc on this heart of mine, Tear me limb from limb until I find, Some kind of space to be free.”, will be ear-worming around your brain long after the album has finished.

The final track 'The Wanderer' which starts with a simple piano part and Rose's lush vocals, she has described as one of her favourite moments, “.... I feel there's a simplicity to it that gets somewhere near to the essential, things I was looking for while making the album.”

In the same interview with Rough Trade Rose gave her thoughts about the album “ .. it's a reflection of the instability of my life at the time, emotionally and otherwise, and then beyond that, what I was witnessing amongst the people I knew and the life of the city....... the harshness of living in a unforgiving city like London...... Although this sounds rather bleak, I tried to a inject a bit of hopefulness and expansiveness to it.”

If you need an album to serve as an antidote to the bleak wintery weather and life in an unforgiving, cold city I prescribe a shot of the sophisticated pop of 'Stellular'.

9/11

Alisdair Whyte

'Stellular' is Rough Trade's album of the month for January 2017

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