Caitlin Rose Returns After 10 Years with New Album “CAZIMI”

Perhaps the name is new to you. But to those who’ve been carefully curating their listening catalogs with the most emotionally-cutting and forward-thinking country music for over a decade with be both intimately familiar with the name Caitlin Rose, and extremely excited to hear that the Texas-born, and Nashville-based songwriter is breaking her ten-year lapse in releasing a new album when CAZIMI hits shelves on November 18th via Missing Piece Records.

The daughter of highly-acclaimed Nashville songwriter Liz Rose, Caitlin’s 2008 Dead Flowers EP, and 2010 debut album Own Side Now announced an important new songwriter, and a stunning singer with a clear and heartbreak-laden voice gracing the music scene. First finding traction in Europe, she soon became one of the faces of the future of country-adjacent Americana. Caitlin Rose took things to the next level with her 2013 album The Stand-In, which ended up making it into the Top 25 of Saving Country Music’s Greatest Albums of the Last Decade.

All of this was proceeded by an extended period where Caitlin became one of the most elusive creators and performers in the East Nashville scene, making spotty appearances here and there, maybe appearing on social media randomly to give astrological advice, and in many respects, adding an addition air of mystery to her music. It is no coincidence that the new album is named after an astrological term for when a planet is in such close proximity to the sun that it’s considered to be in the heart of it, and afterwards, often unravels.

“I was never prepared to take on everything that happened to me in my early twenties,” Rose explains about her extended absence. “Being all of a sudden thrust into spotlights that I had little business being under was rarely empowering, often more so debilitating, and being in the rush of it all, I never could quite catch up. I was living that ‘combust to the sun’ narrative and the burnout was inevitable.”

Last year Caitlin Rose celebrated the 10-year anniversary of Own Side Now with a Deluxe Edition release, but that only tided us over. Now we have the new album announcement, and a new song called “Black Obsidian,” which remains indicative of the Caitlin Rose approach to country music—emotional, evolved, but with steel guitar and some 70s fuzz tone to feel both familiar and vintage.

“I think it’s common for people to fall into or back into difficult relationships after great personal setbacks,” explains Rose about the song. “They can give you a kind of escape from yourself. It gives you this mostly impossible puzzle of trying to figure out what it is the other person is missing, what you could give them to make them whole, then depriving yourself of it in the process. It’s projection for the sake of purpose, loving someone knowing that they will always disappoint you. Because wouldn’t you want them to do the same?”

The lapse in album output from Caitlin Rose was exacerbated when she finally found herself back in the studio in February of 2020 right before the pandemic struck. Nonetheless, Caitlin and producer Jordan Lehning persevered. Lehning also produced both of Joshua Hedley’s recent albums, as well as Caitlin’s The Stand In, and Caroline Spence’s recent release True North. Jordan’s father Kyle Lehning was responsible for all of those Randy Travis records, and a few from George Strait too.

Don’t expect CAZIMI to be hard country though. That’s not the Caitlin Rose sound. Expect it to be more diverse and pop-laden, but compelling, with inspired writing given 10 years to refine itself. The 12 songs of CAZIMI are now available for pre-save and pre-order.

Tracklist

1. Carried Away
2. Modern Dancing
3. Getting It Right
4. Nobody’s Sweetheart
5. Lil’ Vesta
6. Black Obsidian
7. How Far Away
8. Blameless
9. Gemini Moon
10. Holdin’
11. All Right (Baby’s Got A Way)
12. Only Lies