We were invited to a potluck party and rswll is the host of the bunch with his first album, Vernus.
Here at Where The Music Meets we have always been passionate about music. This is truly what drives us. And from the up-and-coming artist to the veteran in this business, we are all here for the same purpose: for the music that fills our souls. And it is with this motto that we cross the Atlantic, fly over North America, and arrive in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
This week’s bet is called rswll. This is the stage name for Roswell Greeniaus. Roswell is a sound engineer, with self-taught veins for composing and producing lyrics/music that will surely mark a generation to come. Whether for the irreverence in its sound or its graphics, if we want to return elegance to the word multifaceted, we have here, in person, an opportunity to do so.
And his first album is the word for that. It’s called Vernus, with a thirty-five length, and we’re surrendered by the emerging Canadian talent. It’s part of a series of four albums to be released during this year. The name of the tetralogy? The Sabotage Montage. March, June, August, and December. Save the…months.
Vernus
Let’s start with machismo & his masochist, where Greeniaus’ voice enters our soul and robs the best of us, with an unsettling rhythm where verses like “This Spring I buried a man, inside my head as I held his hand” catch our attention very early on. Halfway through it, we enter an infinite loop where the sound merges directly with the lyrics and, suddenly, the mix sounds feel like a rave we don’t want to leave. Addictive, to say the least.
We usually associate a potluck with a party where each participant contributes, in their own way, with a plate of food to be shared. Well, for this grouping, there is no better soundtrack than…potluck. The mix of styles is so sensual that we don’t want to leave this party. There’s an instant classic in front of us. And with this, we haven’t stopped dancing yet.
And if from a party we return, rain dancer starts with a sweet entrance that reminds us at first of John Mayer but that, out of nowhere, returns to the revelry of the previous song. Whether it’s Roswell’s impeccable voice, or the beat, simple and clean, but which promises to blossom and make us better any day of the week.
We’re halfway through, and that’s where the artist transforms in a magical way. Or to put it in one word, transmogrification seems to be the right one. “I have the knowledge, I am the fruit, But I’m not the wino, Eyeing the flute“. A minute that echoes in our head in a sexy and transparent way. And then we add the spicy beat, on a first listen. But on the second, third, or fourth, we just want to share it with the people we love most. Because it’s the best stuff you can do. We smell Alt-J, Cage The Elephant, a bit more pop but most of all the irreverence of rswll on a whole.
Keeping the premise of talent with several faces, stone fruit throws us a hip-hop version of this chameleon, with a hallucinating rhythm that, almost to close, throws us a brilliant execution à la Julian Casablancas. Precious.
And by the sixth house, vae victis! – the Latin expression meaning “Woe to the defeated“, or that the defeated in battle are left to the mercy of the victors – they should not wait or ask for mercy. The bubblegum version gets ingrained in our veins, with the verses “Maybe you might kill me If I’m the supervillain in the end In the end” stuck in our minds.
We also have punk here. And whoring is an example of that. “I don’t even know myself Choking on a wishing well, Whoring for a little hope” repeat at a frantic pace that reminds us of the nothing Goldfinger and the song Superman.
To close, the theme with the longest duration – empathy & other challenges. Hello Matt Healy, is that you? Yes, a The 1975 vibe is directly in sight, with a slow burn that increases until it is heard loud and clear on the other side of the world. A frenzy of good listening.
If rswll’s first entry was like this, we don’t even want to imagine what’s coming in the next three forays. Whether it’s a more melancholic style or a more strident one, the reality is that in a few year’s time we’ll be remembering how this all started. This is a pearl, and one of those that the WtMM is proud to recommend and share with the whole world.
More on rswll:
Instagram – Twitter– Youtube– Website – Spotify
Listen to the full album: