Alba Rose’s new indie-pop track Mountains is indescribable. Bright and dynamic, simple yet full, it’s a song devoted to following through on your feelings and declaring, “I can’t be scared of love”.
Inspired by a recent trip to Europe, the track’s clear Spanish influence flutters in its romantic acoustic guitars and shaking percussion. Alba blends this worldly sound with elements of electronica. Washed-out background vocals and mysterious keys craft an incredibly unique, genre-blending sound. Whilst Mountains does feel like its dynamics build to something just a little bit bigger that doesn’t quite arrive, it explores a range of different sounds in its runtime, creating a satisfyingly expansive work.
Mountains emphasises Alba’s gentle vocal performance above all else. Her voice is soft and delicate, making her relatively simple lyrics blush with emotion. It’s this delivery that moves the song from simple songwriting to something intimate and inventive. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that the visuals for Mountains are so striking. They utilise beautiful baby blues and faded browns to place listeners right into Alba’s imagined world.
When it comes to putting Alba Rose’s Mountains into words, no comparisons come to mind. It’s a playful and honest track which toys with genre and song structure. The end result is a single from an artist who proves herself entirely in her own lane.
Since establishing her solo artistic identity in 2020, Rose has performed alongside contemporaries such as Muroki, Harper Finn, Mako Road and LA Woman and played to audiences across Aotearoa, including at Twisted Frequency, That Weekend and the 121 Festival.
Prior to becoming Alba Rose, she spent four years as the front woman for Corduroy. The band hit the NZ top 20 charts, played at the country’s largest festivals, Rhythm & Vines and Bay Dreams, as well as selling out shows on nationwide tours.
During this period of time Rose also featured across genres as a vocalist on hip-hop, liquid D&B, post-punk and trip-hop influenced tracks, with her song Breathe with producer CSM landing on the top 20 Liquid charts of 2020 and 2021.