Artist: Roselit Bone
Song: “Ofrenda”
Album: Ofrenda (Aug 25, 2023)
Label: Get Loud Recordings
Genre: Gothic Country Rock, Rockabilly, Punk, Mexican Ranchera Music
Portland’s Roselit Bone hold nothing back on their latest album Ofrenda. The songs on the album tackle the cycles of loss, survival and rebirth (including a divorce, several family deaths, front woman Charlotte McCaslin’s gender transition, and the beginning of a new relationship) – all set against the cataclysmic backdrop of the pandemic, a summer of police violence against the band’s home city, and massive wildfires that blacked out the sun. It’s a lot, and yet the songs the eight-piece band create are beguiling and raucous, surprising and jaunty. And the latest single, “Ofrenda”, is a glorious and moving suite of ranchera music, Americana and indie rock. About the song, McCaslin has said:
“Ofrenda” is a song about accepting the acceptance of death. I began writing it after a long, dark winter in which a handful of suicides and overdoses in my extended circle had impacted most of my friends. Some people very close to me had been talking about also ending their own lives at the time and I was constantly under pressure to help them stay alive. I would go on to lose several family members and friends over the next few years, and grief would knock me down for weeks or months at a time. But I noticed that, for some brief little moments, the pressure of grieving would give way and I would suddenly feel “okay.” I would then be flooded with pangs of guilt for surviving, for not suffering alongside the dead. “Ofrenda,” the song and album, are an attempt to come to terms with my place as a living thing in a dying world.
Every part of the song, from the ascending horn lines, to the starlit keys, to the journeying guitars, help to transport the listener into another world. And of course, McCaslin’s vocals, a mix of classic country, crooner and the smallest hint of opera, bring the mournful message to the forefront.
It’s a glorious piece of music, and one you should check out in our Check This 2023 playlist before the album drops this Friday.
The Indy Review 