Rosetta West's "Night's Cross" Is A Collection Of Stories

Ranging from the ever vague topic of death, women, and niche things in the world such as the winter moon and alligator farms, “Night’s Cross” entangles these themes with sounds that reverberates in the soul.

Throughout the album, listeners should expect to be met with the all powerful vocals from Joseph Demagore, as well as an assortment of riffs and licks. The quality and harmony of all the instruments go well with the vocal aptitude, creating whole and full tracks to grace the ears of many.

Picture this: a scene from a thriller film, either a goosechase or straight into action, that’s what “Save Me”’s energy is all about. It’s upbeat, features a cool riff and vibe; the bassline and the guitar parts go really well together. It’s a good track to welcome old and new listeners to.

Some song titles are straight up names, such as “Suzie”, which narratively talks about a woman of the same name, as a country-wild west vibe to it, and the escalation in some parts of the track are heavenly. “Dora Lee” comes next, a song that starts off with a riff on acoustic guitar, but at the same time embodies the rock element, which adds a nice, unique touch for a change. There is also “Diana”, which features a waltz-like rhythm, less upbeat than the rest, but has a mysterious, Halloween-esque energy to it.

“You’ll Be The Death Of Me” involves one of the three women above: Dora Lee. It’s a nice way of piecing tracks together without having a solid story-like concept. However, it does seem to have a bit of backstory if we were to consider lyrics such as “You were my first obsession / warping up space and time / this is a true confession”.

At this point of listening, the first half of the record seems to be focusing on a specific theme of yearning or evaluating past lovers; women in general. But as it progresses, the themes become more general and somewhat dark — which is not that evident sound-wise — as the topic of death arises.

But, the instrumentals are as diverse and unique as ever. For instance, “Desperation” almost sounds like a chant from a tribe, whereas “Baby Doll” and “Underground Again” sound like your usual rock songs played on repeat, that you’d never guess these ones being so close together on the tracklist.

In the song “Alligator Farm”, the ambience comes through just right as listeners are immediately hit with what sounds like alligator growls in the beginning. Again, it’s another form of narrating the experience of working on an alligator farm, and the sound as a whole greatly resembles a song fit for playing around a campfire with a bunch of buddies at night.

“Cold Winter Moon” is next, and there’s something beautiful about this one; it’s slower, tamer compared to the first few tracks, but it still has a certain thickness to it. It features words along the lines of “I feel lost tonight / I need you to stay and hold me tight”, “Everywhere I look, I see unfriendly eyes / a cold winter moon is on the rise”.

“Oh Death” is a song with isolated acoustic guitar and vocals, nothing more and nothing less. As such, it offers some sort of lulling intimacy, except it wouldn’t be fit for an actual lullaby as it’s about death, but the idea isn’t completely closed off. “Ready To Go” plays right after, which is perfect as they share the common theme: “If it’s my time, then I am ready to go”. There’s a huge contrast sound-wise, but despite the latter having the rock-like tune, it still carries a somber energy with it. Great positioning with this pair.

Overall, kudos to the production, the tackling of certain themes that would surely get audiences hooked. The highlight of the entire record would be the guitar parts — screw that, every element in general — as it seems that they’re played to their fullest potential.