Alyssa Reid: Roses

By Kerry Doole

Alyssa Reid - Roses (Wax Records): After recently recording under the moniker ASHS, this platinum-selling pop singer/songwriter released an album of that name late last year.

One of its focus tracks, Roses, is now out as a single, and it is a song with real resonance for Reid. In a press release, she explains that "Often I start writing and let my subconscious tell the story. I won't even know how I’m feeling until I've finished writing about it. Roses kind of wrote itself. I sat down at the piano one day, picked a starting chord and the entire song just spilled out.

"I wasn't thinking about how others might perceive it. I only know where I was at when I felt compelled to write. I was experiencing a lot of numbness, and I didn't know why. You'll notice a juxtaposition between the sensitive subject matter and the beauty in the imagery. The pre-chorus lyrics highlight the way we celebrate people posthumously. We ignore and tear down the living, then they die and we glorify them and call them legends. Always seemed strange to me."

The tune features a lush and glossy contemporary pop production, with Reid's clean vocals neatly embedded. Given the soul-searching nature of the lyrics (sample: "No one loves the lonely or the broken til their done”), the track has a surprisingly energetic feel to it.

Coinciding with the release of Roses, Reid has launched an online fundraiser for The LifeLine Canada Foundation, a charity focused on mental health. More info here.

Reid's ASHS album has earned an impressive response (9M streams and counting). Upon its release, she explained that "I want fans to understand that it’s not what they are used to hearing from me. Having this time to grow and fall in love with music again has allowed me to embrace a level of fearlessness that I am not willing to part with. The new music, regardless of the name it comes out under, will continue to be 100% honest and genuine. It will be happy, angry, heartbroken and all the spaces in between.”

It's now over a decade behind since Reid released her debut album, The Game, which featured Alone Again (ft. P. Reign), a major international hit that has been certified double platinum in Canada. The Juno and MMVA nominee has also had success writing hits for artists like Alessia Cara (Drama Queen), Bülow (Not A Love Song) and Virginia To Vegas (Selfish).

Stay tuned for tour dates.

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Publicity: Tiffany Astle, PenelopePR