Caroline Rose changes not only sound and genre but also persona with each album in the vein of Madonna, Prince, and Kendrick Lamar. Check out her 2014 blues and alt-country inflected debut, I Will Not Be Afraid, or the danceable pop-punk of 2018’s Loner (complete with a red track suit aesthetic), or the glossy electro-wonderland satire that is 2020’s Superstar. You’d almost swear they were released by different artists as each album is so fully defined and distinctive. But Rose’s DNA traces through each work—witty wordplay and fully realized storytelling. Her most recent singles, the stripped-down, melancholic “Love / Lover / Friend” (2022) and plaintive “Miami” (2023), show their growth as an artist. Both tracks are more experimental and sonically layered, the lyrics pushing into deeply personal places. Her latest record, The Art of Forgetting, comes out on March 24, and Rose is hitting the road to support it. Caroline Rose plays at 10 p.m. on April 14 at the 9:30 Club. 930.com. $26.
Caroline Rose
