Rosary "I Gave You All The Answers"
On his ninth Rosary release, Cawthon perfectly pairs relentless enthusiasm with thoughtful construction.
“I Gave You All The Answers.”
It’s a straightforward statement. But after nearly a decade composing under the Rosary moniker, Jack Cawthon continues to expand his sound by dredging ever deeper, making his own meaning from the depths of life’s chaotic ambiguity. Older Rosary tracks often had a subdued beat to complement an ambience that stretched across the very edges of a track. “I Gave You All the Answers” inverts that. The beats (except in a couple key instances) take the lead. Riding out to eternity if you’d let them with whimsical sound, whirring bass, and swooping synths bounding alongside the confidence these tracks exude. Reminiscent not just in tone and sound to a 90s side-scroller, you’ll race along its stuttering landscapes, launch over its gravitating chasms, and lose yourself in the hypnotic swirl of its many loops, sailing through its half hour runtime effortlessly.
The album from the starting block kicks off with “Life Flight”. Distorted, acid washed synths vibrate out before rebounding on themselves, reverberating the whole track as a cheerful lilt leaps between its endlessly self-rendered arches. As the track ramps up, those upbeat jolts keep the momentum going as an ominous echo rides in the wake of the cresting sound wave, always just on the edge of capturing and overpowering it. And from there, the songs that follow do not relent.
Track three “Enough Talk”, plays like the lost accompaniments to a secret zone from “Sonic the Hedgehog” you couldn’t unlock as a kid. Never quite leaping at the right point to reach the uppermost path you were only vaguely aware of. Never knowing until now the undulating portal that awaited your persistence. You’ll enter a place totally foreign, as the muted beat welcomes you. Far off bursts of synths signal your arrival while a deep driving bass foretells dangers abound as you take off. As the track revs up, snappy drums, lush keys, and layered beats compile over minutes to a victorious crescendo. At this absolute high point, the track quivering under the sheer weight of digital textures, sound by sound gradually slides away, leaving by the end only a deep ricocheting bass to bring it to a close.
Among the high-octane tracks, contemplative pieces are strategically placed. Pulling from the past, they give the listener time to reflect on what they’ve just experienced. After the first halves speedier, sleeker approach, “Burst” leads with soft melancholic guitar reminiscent of a “Twin Girls” track (another of Jack’s excellent music projects) as you sink into its warm rhythm. While easy to listen to, it by no means releases the hold the album has had on you thus far. It’s simply a brief respite before the second “burst” of energy the latter songs on the record have in store.
By the very end, after all this new energy has nearly burned clean through, the album caps off with “Casting for Soul” tapping into the roots of former Rosary releases. A twinkling outro, its stripped-down beat and gentle organ playing in the background, allows both its creator and the listener to not only take in the record they’ve just heard, but the culmination of the eight other releases that came before it. After experiencing an album like this, you’ll be sorely tempted to repeat it with this question in mind: How does something this intricate, fun, and invigorating come off so seamless?
The thankless task of keeping this kinetic adventure on rails and rolling is handled deftly by a creator who’s more surefooted than ever. In these digital soundscapes that can often be limiting for any creator by the sheer number of possibilities, he references the blueprints of past releases, both electronic and guitar driven, while continuing to build upward with new materials to further heights year after year. He knows the layout and what he wants to evoke from you by the end. But knows better than to just give you it outright. It’ll take a few more listens to get them. And it lends itself to that approach. “I Gave You All the Answers” rides that line between relentless enthusiasm and thoughtful construction. Much like its creator, it balances those seemingly opposing ideas masterfully.
If you enjoyed “I Gave You All The Answers” I’d greatly encourage you to give the past Rosary releases a listen. Each and every one is totally worth it and gives you an appreciation of the more minimal ambience I’ve always loved and just how much the sound of this project has grown since its first release in 2015.
Hoping this finds you well and looking forward to more posts (relatively) soon.
Love Always,
MATTIE B.