James Richard Rose takes us on “No Such Thing (Floating Heart),” a reverie that rocks subtly between an illusory break and the proper position. One that sounds as though it’s been ripped from a half-remembered nightmare and left threadbare around the edges, just like the old tape onto which they recorded it.
The achingly fragile track began life as a standalone single in 2023, but now feels rightfully at home among the rest of Rose’s “Some Dream” EP, a six-song suite breaking down the tarot and where each song maps out to a card in an imagined deck. “No Such Thing (Floating Heart)” represents the devastated beauty of a card that captures a moment in limbo, fragile and trembling between what is real and what might have been.
Rose’s fragile voice floats around like murmurs in a dark room, accompanied by guitar tones worn by tape that could outlive me and my entire bloodline. The song’s subtlety will resonate with fans of Elliott Smith, Big Star, and the quieter moments of The Beatles. It has an edge of patience, a comfort in the gray area nestled so perfectly between hope and resignation, like rain falling onto a street outside from an upstairs café window at dusk, watching broken reflections dull by each ring whispered by espresso steam.
Rose calls “Some Dream” EP a story in six drawn cards, featuring scenes of love, separation, survival, and loss, as well as the magic that comes from looking inward. It was recorded on a vintage Tascam 388 in the 7th Ward of New Orleans, and “Catch the Rain” was recorded at 64 Sound with Tyler Karmen. The EP is coated in analog exudation, with the defects that come from recording to tape, sloping all perfections off your notes.
On “No Such Thing (Floating Heart),” Rose offers a space to stop and float. The track encourages you to pull in close and allow its nuanced layers, with poetic sadness, to wash over your heart, and this is a somber reality that remains with you. It is art for the dreamers out there, for the late-night drifters, and anyone who has ever experienced pain from something real but unimaginable. In Rose’s sound tarot, this is the one you keep flipping.
Connect with James Richard Rose on Instagram – @jamesrosemusic
