Toxic love is like James Bond

Baby Rose was born Jasmine Rose Wilson in 1994 in Washington, DC. Her second studio album, Through and Through, will be released on April 28.

Baby Rose: Stop the bleeding. “Love shouldn’t be that hard,” Baby Rose sings in this grand ballad fit for the opening of a James Bond movie, with piano, strings, and heightened luxury. The crisp vibrato in the alto reminds us of Anohni, the same big voice of the matchless Aretha Franklin, who also often sang about unhappy love. Why are soul and blues fraught with toxic relationships? Since the singers refused to be domesticated, demanded “respect”, as argued by the American intellectual Angela Davis in Blues Legacies and Black Feminism (1998)? This should not be the case anymore. But love and self-abandonment are still very close to each other. “You take my breath away / You take my love away,” Baby Rose sums up, asking herself: “How do I stop repeating / Break the cycle”? An anthem song about a toxic relationship.

song of the week Each week Thomas Kramar and Heide Rampetzreiter (“Die Presse”) as well as Michaela Pichler and Christoph Sepin (Radio FM4). It can be heard on Sundays between 7pm and 9pm on FM4. More information at www.diepresse.com/songderwoche www.fm4.ORF.at.

(“Die Presse,” print edition, March 19, 2023)