Making a welcome return to the spotlight, the singer-songwriter from Blackpool delivers an atmospheric and elegiac single for the soul, that emerges as her first new material of 2020.
Offering wistful rumination on how mental health can send shockwaves through even the most intimate and entwined of relationships, ‘Orange Rose’ sees Karima strike a masterful balance of meditative and melancholy songwriting.
“In a world where we sometimes feel we can’t speak out, we tend to take it the worst out on people closest to us.” says Karima, opening-up about the track’s fragile subject matter.
“I was fantasising about making more, organic, saturated sounding records for a long time and alongside this, I wanted to record out in America as I was finding most of my musical influences were artists from America.” she says. “Last year I made the move to go out to California to find the sound for the new record and to immerse myself in the West Coast indie/alternative scene and out there, the relationship with Tim bloomed and the music was made.”
Sometimes a track comes along and you wonder how you lived your life without it. When a voice grabs you and holds tight. Francis has a rare talent of being able to break hearts or send shivers with her voice. ‘Orange Rose’ sounds like it is straight from the 80’s somewhere in America with its picked guitar and stretched out synth chords. Francis’s voice is haunting and fragile yet simmers with power. Her control of that souring power is what touches the heart. Something that hasn’t happened since I heard Patti Smith.
I am now spending the rest of my weekend digging out this ladies back catalogue.
Check it out, here
Find out more about her via her website
