{"title":"Rose Mcdowall","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"cut-with-the-cake-knife","title":"Cut With The Cake Knife","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing a discovery of Rose McDowall by a younger generation of people on social media, Night School has newly remastered and with a new vinyl cut, \u003cem\u003eCut With The Cake Knife,\u003c\/em\u003e presented with reimagined artwork that more closely recreates the original hand-made CD produced by McDowall.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCut With The Cake Knife \u003c\/em\u003ewas recorded by Rose McDowall in 1988 and 1989 following the break up of her group Strawberry Switchblade. Produced with the aid of several musicians in several studios, the album features songs written for the fabled second Strawberry Switchblade album. More importantly, perhaps, it showcases the honest, direct and life-affirming songs of one of the greatest unsung songwriters of the modern pop era at a tumultuous time in her career. Like the veiled melancholy of her former group's hits,\u003cem\u003e Cut With the Cake Knife \u003c\/em\u003ehints at a darkness beneath the gloss, a darkness that saw McDowall delve into more esoteric territory with her subsequent recordings and collaborations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCut With the Cake Knife\u003c\/em\u003e serves as the bridge between the pop music McDowall had been making with her friends Jill Bryson, Lawrence from Felt, and Primal Scream to what became a more extreme, deep sound informed by neo-folk and post-industrial music. Rose McDowall's role in the canon has always been one of an outsider. Beginning in Glasgow's East End in the avant proto-noise group The Poems, achieving fame briefly in the '80s and then disappearing into counter-cultural folklore, the emphasis in the internet-age has been skewed towards her image and cultural significance. Unseen to many, her solo work, her groups Sorrow and Spell, and her collaborations with a whole host of underground luminaries have still touched lives. Night School's issue of \u003cem\u003eCut With The Cake Knife \u003c\/em\u003eincludes unpublished photographs, extensive sleeve notes from Rose McDowall and 2 bonus tracks culled from the bootleg 7\" 'Don't Fear The Reaper.'\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Night School","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50467594699083,"sku":"392486","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":56692653818187,"sku":"R0359-2437","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD (2026)","offer_id":56692689535307,"sku":"R0359-9096","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP- Black (US Version - Sacred Bones)","offer_id":58072839749963,"sku":"R0359-3086","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Red with Bone White Splatter (US Version - Sacred Bones)","offer_id":58072839782731,"sku":"R0359-4361","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/3205c75b-3e45-33cf-93ff-1f4b2a1eee7f.png?v=1772626182"},{"product_id":"our-twisted-love","title":"Our Twisted Love","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eOur Twisted Love \u003c\/i\u003eEP constitutes the most contemporary recordings by Rose McDowall available, heralding her return to live performance and songwriting. Building on the groundwork laid by McDowall with her group Sorrow, and various collaborations with key figures in the post industrial landscape, it features a full band recording and long-form songwriting that draws heavily on both McDowall’s keen sense of pop melody and melancholy. Breaking into a harmonium drone and Rose’s instantly recognisable, vocal, the epic title song unfurls at a glowing, glacial pace. Never hiding her love for the Velvet Underground, \u003ci\u003eOur Twisted Love\u003c\/i\u003e reminds the listener of 70s-era Nico, but McDowall’s fragile vocal has a spine-tingling fragility of its own. Guitarist Dru Moore provides shimmering chords that dress the melody, itself framed with multi instrumentalist Eilish McEvil’s plucked violin strings. Rose’s gorgeous twists with the vocal erupt into a full band jam, with bassist Clay Young, acclaimed cellist Jo Quail and drummer Lloyd James joining in for a neo-folk, dronist excursion that elevates the song into psychedelic territory. \u003ci\u003eThis Calling\u003c\/i\u003e sparkles with 12 string guitar and violin and would, given another production, easily fit into McDowall’s earlier material. A song that laments the songwriter’s battle with depression, taken in tandem with the title song, McDowall describes extreme mental states, a natural inclination to melancholy while creating something uplifting in the process. \u003ci\u003eMake It Easy On Yourself\u003c\/i\u003e is McDowall and band’s rendition of the Bacharach and David classic. Taken at a slower place, nocturnal in mood, the iconic chord structure sounds achingly eldritch in this outing, the band paying respects to the original while adding its own, distinct, faded light. McDowall’s vocal performance is beamed straight from the deepest night, fragile, emotional and perfect. While undoubtedly some distance from the sparkling pop music Rose McDowall made her name with in the mid 80s as half of Strawberry Switchblade, and later with \u003ci\u003eCut The Cake\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Night School","offers":[{"title":"12\"","offer_id":50468042309963,"sku":"1011615","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/775b4f27-3227-4cea-b341-fea40f7433bc_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727344427"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/rose-mcdowall.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}