Jasmine Rose Wilson, known as Baby Rose, releases her third album Yearnalism, a collection of 12 songs that delve into the peaks and troughs of relationships with a voice that teeters on the edge of emotional collapse. The US soul singer uses her fraying contralto to paint vivid portraits of love and loss, from the slow-moving ballad "The Reason," where she admits she's "gone off the deep end," to the vintage R&B track "But, Nvm," where she tries to convince herself everything is fine while fleeing the scene. "Waiting on a train," she sings, "to take me somewhere you won't call my name."
Cinematic Overtures and Musical Diversity
Rose's cinematic approach is not accidental; she contributed music to and briefly appeared in the 2025 romantic comedy-drama Materialists. On the melodically rich soft-rock track "Better," which shares the breezy lightness of Olivia Dean's recent album and would have fit perfectly on a Bridget Jones soundtrack, Rose paints a precise portrait of a kitchen-based standoff she eventually wins. "Sunday" starts as a scratchy, Nina Simone-esque ballad before a string section and guitar transform it into an epic. Throughout the album, Rose's voice remains the star, scuffing up guest Leon Thomas's smoothness on the lovelorn "Friends Again" and stirring extra grit into "When I'm Gone," where she half-raps: "You ain't got the motherfuckin' answers / You're a cancer," over undulating guitar.
Emotional Depth and Retro-Soul Explorations
Even when songs travel down a retro-soul cul-de-sac, such as "All My Love," which is nice but nothing more, Rose communicates true pain. By choosing to feel it all and revel in the drama, she kicks emotional numbness to the kerb. The album, released on Secretly Canadian, showcases an impressively wide variety of shades, from vintage R&B to melodic soft-rock and balladry worthy of Nina Simone. According to the review, "Such cinematic overtures aren’t accidental: Rose contributed music to, and briefly appeared in, 2025’s romantic comedy-drama Materialists."
