Esther Rose

Esther Rose will release Want on May 2, 2025 via New West Records. The 11-track set was produced by Ross Farbe (of Video Age) and recorded live-to-tape at the Bomb Shelter in Nashville, TN. Want is the anticipated follow-up to 2023’s Safe to Run which was met with wide acclaim from The New York Times, Pitchfork, Stereogum, No Depression, and more. The album features appearances by the singer-songwriter Dean Johnson as well as members of Video Age, The Deslondes, and Silver Synthetic. Following the wide-open serenity of Safe to Run, Rose now leans toward confrontational arrangements full of distortion and full-band spontaneity, never sacrificing a classicist’s gift for melody that makes each song instantly memorable. “For me, these songs felt like revelations,” she explains, comparing the record to a memoir, alive with kinetic storytelling and personal insight. Ranging from stark solo performances to grungy blowouts, the album maintains a steady focus while never staying too long in one place. Vivid and bracing, she has made the most adventurous, hardest-hitting record of her career.

Today, Esther Rose shared the video for the first single, 'New Bad,' which was directed by the artist and New York Times bestselling author Anna Marie Tendler. Rose says, “This song leaps from the speakers. It’s part grunge, part shoegaze. Working with Anna Marie Tendler was the collaboration I’ve always dreamed of. We sparked an easy, natural rapport out of mutual admiration for each other’s artistry. After I read her book Men Have Called Her Crazy, I sent her a note, saying that my unreleased album and her memoir were apparently spiritual twins. Luckily, she agreed.

Anna Marie Tendler said, "We spent five days, just the two of us, traversing the desert talking and laughing about love, family, our careers, therapy, ketamine, divorce, and music, all while filming a video whose themes and visuals were predicated on the pluralism of self. We also spent a lot of time in comfortable silence watching a golden sun set into an inky sky. On our last day, I thanked Esther for taking this chance on me. She, of course, had access to all my photographs, but there was little in terms of video work to prove my proficiency, let alone talent. I was surprised to learn it wasn't my visual work, but my memoir, which had gotten me the job. I just knew you would get what I was trying to say, Esther told me."

To reach the new level of confidence presented on Want, the Santa Fe-based Rose had to recalibrate her entire relationship with music. When she concluded the tour for Safe to Run, she considered quitting music altogether, feeling exhausted and depleted, seeing no way to continue at her relentless pace. After quitting drinking and finding new momentum in therapy, she devoted herself to the new material, letting ideas flow without worrying about the final product. She considered making an electro-pop album; a self-titled acoustic record. Eventually, she began categorizing her disparate ideas under the working title The Therapy LP. “There are things that I have tiptoed around in my writing — and in my life — that I wasn’t ready to look at,” she reflects, “and now I’m going for it.” The results are breakthroughs that tether her tightly structured melodies to narratives that bring distressing subject matter down to earth. Like David Bowie, Rose would arrive at the studio in carefully chosen outfits to set the tone for each session, guiding her bandmates to follow the mood.

Want is the overarching theme to the new album. There are 77 mentions of the word throughout (Rose counted them). She’s no numerologist but knows that 7 is lucky and symbolizes completeness. A prime number, there are 7 notes in the diatonic scale, 7 days a week, 7 levels of purgatory, 7 chakras. She says “This record is introspective and internal. In these songs, I examine my thoughts and behavior patterns,” adding, “there are other themes, fear being a big one. I write when I’m scared, and I was scared a lot, sometimes by external situations but mostly by deep-diving into my subconscious. Another theme is accountability. I’m still learning about this one. I believe in the power of music to reveal and heal.” Want is the widest-reaching album of Esther Rose’s career and a panorama of emotions. Describing the euphoria of sharing these intimate stories among trusted collaborators, she says, “Making this album was the most beautiful experience of my life.”

Esther Rose has also announced her initial tour dates in support of Want. She will launch a co-headline tour with Twain tomorrow night in Austin, TX which features stops at Gold Diggers in Los Angeles, The Blue Room at Third Man Records in Nashville, TN, Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, NY, and more. She will also support Andrew Combs in the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden prior to launching her UK headline dates on May 19 in Glasgow.

Want will be available across digital platforms, compact disc, and standard black vinyl. A limited yellow vinyl edition and limited compact disc both signed by Esther Rose will be available at Independent Retailers. A limited to 200 white vinyl edition autographed by Rose and featuring a yellow flexidisc of the unreleased track 'Heather' will be available via Rough Trade. An extremely limited to 250 “Smoke” colour vinyl edition as well as a limited compact disc edition both autographed by Rose is available for pre-order NOW via NEW WEST RECORDS.

Esther Rose was on a long solo drive when she started writing the opening title track of Want, her stunning fifth album. At first, the words seemed almost like a joke, something to keep herself amused as the miles passed. “I want a puppy, but I don't want a mess. I want to know where I’m going without GPS,” she sang from behind the wheel. Soon, the idea snowballed into a list of desires that spanned existential, spiritual, and mundane; romantic to platonic to familial; at once wildly ambitious yet piercingly relatable; all set to a catchy melody that blends her pop instincts with country storytelling and the raw immediacy of a basement punk show. In other words, she was on her way to another classic Esther Rose song.

This precise blend has made the Santa Fe-based artist one of her generation’s most beloved songwriters: someone whose live shows are known to conclude in mass tears and group hugs. Still, something was different this time. “For me, these songs felt like revelations,” she explains, comparing the 11-song record to a memoir, alive with kinetic storytelling and personal insight. In its newly direct and stirringly nuanced writing, you’ll hear about rock bottom encounters, shifting relationships with substances, evolving perspectives on adult partnership, and, as evidenced by those early lines in “Want,” a few jokes along the way. Vivid and bracing, Want places you in the passenger seat while each of these feelings arrive.