Rosie Carney

"intensely intimate and vulnerable... shades of Simon & Garfunkel and Phoebe Bridgers" - The Times

"[her] wistful, and reflective best" - Beats Per Minute

"Cultdom, at the very least, beckons" - MOJO  

"Rosie Carney writes songs that feel lived-in and worn" - NPR  

"Simply put, Rosie Carney's voice is gorgeous" - Paste

"Carney finds magic in minimalism" - Guardian 

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Today, Rosie Carney releases her second album i wanna feel happy via Color Study. It follows her 2019 debut album Bare, and last year’s full covers version of The Bends.

Today’s focus track, “Sugar” comes after the fuzzy tones of “dad”, the intimate, reflective “tidal wave” and Folklore inspired “break the ground”.

Finding light out of darkness is a feature of Carney’s artistry she has not only mastered but embraced. Her first struggled attempt at the album was eventually abruptly ended by the pandemic. What followed was amplified social media pressures and personal mental health struggles against the backdrop of navigating a musical career in lockdown.

“It was an extremely hard time for me,” says the Anglo Irish singer-songwriter. At first I felt like all my confidence in my music and myself had been shattered, but really what made it so difficult was realising that the confidence wasn’t even there in the first place. So to be uprooted in that way can be quite devastating. But it made me realise a lot of important things too. It allowed me to hit a reset button with myself and slowly scrap away the facade I’d been hiding behind.”

Turning towards recording her own version of Radiohead’s The Bends (and the critical acclaim that followed its release) proved she “was able to express myself in many different sounds”.

However, it’s not a stretch to suggest Carney is a next-gen torch bearer of the album oriented indie and folk-rock heights of the late 2000’s. She has collaborated with Lisa Hannigan and Bartlett and as a fan of The National was ecstatic to be invited to the latest Sounds From A Safe Harbour Festival, curated by Bryce and Aaron Dessner. Having grown up covering Taylor Swift in nearby Irish pubs, Swift’s 2020 Aaron Dessner-produced Folklore also became a huge inspiration for the album.

“When Folklore was released, it was like a “holy shit” moment because it just really reinforced the fact that I’m allowed to write the music that I want to write, I’m allowed to be a storyteller in my lyrics if I want to. It was like oh shit yeah, being authentic is way cooler.”

After “an albums worth of bad songs”, Carney realised that she didn’t start her career writing music for people to love or even listen to, she wrote music for herself.

“My music is deeply personal and however that ends up sounding, whether it’s folk or indie, I never want to deny myself of that,” she explains.

“This album signifies such important personal growth in my life. It’s like having all the best and worst parts of me carefully documented. I feel nostalgic and melancholy when I see the title. It’s like someone took all the feelings and growing pains from around this album and bottled them up. It’s also quite funny as I’m still just trying to feel happy.”

i wanna feel happy was produced by JMAC (Luz, Matilda Man, Haux) at London’s RAK Studios.

Rosie Carney’s second LP i wanna feel happy is out today via Color Study along with focus track “Sugar”.