“We’re changing the setlist again,” were the words uttered by self-described “formerly hilarious thespian songstress” Caroline Rose late into her headlining set on April 23 at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City.
Rose posted on social media that “they’re busting out all the stops” on this second and final tour cycle for her 2023 album, The Art of Forgetting, which was nominated for a Grammy award for Best Recording Package. If you haven't heard of this particular Grammy category, the Best Recording Package award is presented for the visual look of an album. The consistently red-clad Rose has always made a point of her visual output. Consider her 2018 album Loner, where she posed with over a dozen cigarettes lodged in her mouth, or her latest album, where she's seated, blindfolded in a burning room. Her seemingly serene pose amid chaos is indicative of the conditions she faced while crafting her latest album.
Written, arranged and produced by Rose (also credited with art direction), The Art of Forgetting is a post-breakup and post-pandemic album. It's Rose's most confessional and dynamic (watch your volume knob) album, and has a run time of nearly double that of her three previous albums.
Re-examining a music career post-pandemic
The Art of Forgetting is also Rose's first album since her cohesive and glittery synth-pop album Superstar, which was released March 6, 2020, five days before the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Rose noted that “the timing was pretty terrible,” as in addition to the pandemic, she also dealt with a loss of self, loss of a relationship and a new understanding of her career.
“I've spent so much time just trying to get my career to look and feel the way that I've always wanted it to. I guess it was a big realization. The moment when I was like, ‘Oh, my career is never going to love me back,' you know? And it's at the whim and mercy of the world and circumstances and I have no control over that."
Rose certainly has no control over a highly transmittable virus, or how fans react to her music, but she's shown total control with her latest album's release and current tour. Rose played the entire album in sequential order on her 2023 tour. While it might have left fans of previous albums anxious to play “the hits,” Rose treated the set like performance theatre.
“I'm more of a storyteller than a musician sometimes.”
"I guess it was a big realization. The moment when I was like, ‘Oh, my career is never going to love me back,' you know? And it's at the whim and mercy of the world and circumstances and I have no control over that.”Caroline Rose, reflecting on the pandemic's impact on their career.
As another example, during the 2023 tour, Rose performed the entire album isolated from the supporting band by an opaque white screen (what she calls a “DIY Pro” set design). She also crowd surfed.
Performance at the Englert
Stage diving was not deployed during Rose's visit to the Englert this April, likely due to the larger venue size and atypical layout of traditional theater seating, with some concertgoers seated during the show and a smaller standing crowd in front.
“Spirits are high,” Rose said upon embarking on this last tour before she reenters “hermit mode.” When announcing the tour, Rose said, “We’re going to just play whatever the hell I want.”
Relaxed is one word to describe Rose's Iowa City set. Nothing was separating her from the band this time. The white panel backdrops felt like an evolution of the previous set design, hanging loose and spaced apart as lights, color and filmed pieces bounced off of them.
The first half of the show was largely made up of songs from The Art of Forgetting. Then Rose introduced the second half by saying she was going to play “greatest hits” for the rest of the show. She switched song order around a couple times and went in a “rockabilly” direction toward the end of “Money,” from Loner. Rose's original plan was to end the show with "I Took a Ride," the last track from Superstar, which seemed admirable given the song is on a somewhat overlooked album due to its pandemic release.
“I always say I'm not a McDonald's hamburger. Like, I'm never going to be the same every time, and I think that's something that we should get used to in the AI generation now. Like, we should embrace that artist change and that we're human beings and that we feel differently every day.”
Maybe blame it on the cult-like worship of Caroline Rose fans and Iowa alternative music enthusiasts, but enough cheering convinced Rose to play one more song: The Art of Forgetting’s album closer, "Where Do I Go From Here?"
This may be the top question on Rose's fans’ minds following the nontraditional pop album’s release. “This is probably the last type of album that I make like this for awhile.”
Wherever Rose goes next, I hope she enjoys it, and perhaps makes a return visit to “Iowa Town,” which she voiced as a more accurate depiction of the tour stop. “Six glorious blocks of city.”
