Toronto R&B singer Aphrose honors heritage and love on her sophomore album Roses. The longtime supporting vocalist spent the last decade elevating the work of others including, Daniel Caesar, Lee Fields & The Expressions, Charlotte Day Wilson, and more before she moved into the solo arena. The natural warmth, clarity and powerful pitch control of her voice conveys the kind of emotion that turns every song into a living portrait.
SafeSpaceship Music, her friends and collaborators from years back, produced Roses which is named after her grandmother. They back her vocals with a lot of soul music’s past conventions but still show respect to some of R&B’s modern stylists. She lists Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Aretha Franklin and contemporary artists Frank Ocean, Sir and Sza as some of her muses. Roses does pull a lot of its moves from a wellspring of classic soul and for that it would get the neo label but it is not a period piece.
“Good Love” is timeless intimate relationship ballad embedded with some of the ideas heard in Quincy Jones’ Dude era or Rick James’ work around the same time. “Honey (Don’t) Come Back” also has flashback flavors but starts with Aphrose singing over a suspended flutter of a beat that gives the halo of Miguel’s 21st century stance. The “Chop The Cake” interlude is a dead ringer for the grooves from D’Angelo’s Voodoo that sounded like they were being played underwater. Lastly, Aphrose observes new motherhood with humility and a doting eagerness for the future. Roses succeeds as an album because Aphrose claims her own space by ignoring trends and writing songs from the heart.
