Baby Rose - Yearnalism (Maro) [LP]

With modern dating being reduced to app-swiping, toxic nonchalance andeven balloon-popping humiliation, we're losing recipes on how to properlyyearn for each other. But while most try to keep their guards up, Baby Rose isstaying devoted to what's real. Fresh off winning her first GRAMMY Award inthe Best R&B Album category for her part on Leon Thomas' MUTT, theunmistakable contralto returns with Yearnalism, her third studio albumsteeped in confidence, care and liberating love.The singer-songwriter-producer defines yearnalism as the process anddocumentation of desire in it's many forms: "Desiring freedom, desiring love,desiring what you can't have, desiringexpansion." This streamlined 12-song LP of soon-to-be classics creates a bumpyroadmap ofdesire free from ego. Rose notes that despite the current trend of "too cool"emotional avoidance in music and entertainment, she pushed herself and hercollaborators to bare a different side of themselves. "If you're coming into mycourt, you're coming to yearn," she declares with a laugh.Three albums in, Yearnalism is a sonic snapshot of Rose at her mostself-assured. "This is mereally honing in and trusting that signature, catching lightning-in-a-bottlesound," she says. "This is kind of a lesson in me really figuring out that myfavorite process is being a part of the crew, being a part of this whole moment."Baby Rose has been building up to this moment, brick by brick, for almost adecade. Raised between Washington D.C. and Fayetteville, N.C. on artists likeNina Simone, Donny Hathaway and Janis Joplin, the musician born JasmineRose Wilson has been a mainstay in alternative R&B since her 2019 debut, ToMyself. That's when the smoky resonance of her voice and awise-beyond-her-years presence first stopped listeners in their tracks. Sincethen, she has held her own on records with Ari Lennox, Big K.R.I.T., Q,BADBADNOTGOOD and J. Cole. She closed out the end credits of Hollywoodblockbuster Creed III and lent her talents to A24's Materialists both onscreenand off by giving the film's soundtrack two songs of aching texture andmoonlighting as a wedding singer in a cameo. She's graced stages witheveryone from Robert Glasper to Vince Staples and made appearances inperformance art at The Museum of Modern Art and ballets at Lincoln Center forthe Performing Arts in arrangements by Misty Copeland's choreographer, thelegendary Kyle Abraham. Her industry admirers include heavyweights like SZA,Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, H.E.R, Kehlani, James Blake and OliviaDean. Plainly put, Rose's name rings bells and her artistry speaks even highervolumes.Getting to the level of self-love that each track of Yearnalism exudes has been ajourney for Rose and one that she plans to keep taking. Rose credits therapy forallowing her to call past bouts of anxiety and depression by their names,friends like SZA for introducing her to methods of breathwork and meditationand keeping God first for helping her stay grounded through her journey. Withher continued study of Yearnalism, Rose reminds the listener that it's worth itto say the hard parts out loud with honesty and to love in spite of fear.