I guess there are two reasons why I would sit down and write a review which is not going to add to my slimline bank account. Either it's a CD from a big name artist which could be good or bad though, either way, you should know about it. Or, it's a drop dead great CD from a relative unknown. Never heard of Eileen Rose? Can you guess the rest? OK. The queue forms here behind band members with credentials from Del Amitri to Wreckless Eric (......now, there's an unsung hero). Eileen originates from Boston but is now resident in the UK which probably explains the breadth of influences found on this record. Music described elsewhere as "twisted folk and bluesy country" actually takes on a whole load of influences. Take, for example, 'Shining' whose lyrics spawn the CD's title. Those girly oo-a-ooh's at the end sound like they've come from tape found lying around the studio after The Stones recorded "Beggars Banquet". Indeed, good old rough'n'ready rock'n'roll is never far from the surface despite that pleasant interview she did for Radio Two's Woman's Hour. From all this, you'll gather that there is a depth and maturity here that surprises for a debut album. I can't find any track that I would call weak and the opening track, "Rose", is something of a minor classic. It gets followed by a swaggering tale of redemption in "Still In The Family" before moving into a delightful ballad in "Silver Ladle". The latter getting beaten by a nose in the great ballad stakes by the closing track, "Find Your Way Out". This skips over the rocking "Trying To Lose You" which is well worthy of a mention. Also, just in case you think I've forgotten that "twisted folk and bluesy country" quote, there is a lovely country swing to "Would You Marry Me?". On the evidence of a live performance of the latter, a queue of single gentlemen is also forming. Ladies and Gentlemen, trust me, this record is a worthy investment whether you're single, married or happily partnered.

"Lie to me. Say to me that it's all forgotten," sings Rose, her voice a tender, tremulous thing - soft and steely, wracked and wrought - while an acoustic guitar thrums, and a spectral organ sweeps and swoons, and the melody shimmers and aches with deep and beauteous hurt. This is songcraft of the highest order. Stuff that lingers long and nestles deep. Few "debut" albums arrive so fully formed, so laden with wisdom, pain, magic and loss. Born and raised in America, but long-time London based, Rose's musical pre-history includes an obscure self-released solo album ("really acoustic, really folky, I didn't know enough to know what a goof I was being, but people really responded to the emotion of it"), plus stints fronting various rock bands in Boston - Daisy Chain, Medici Slot Machine, and Fledgling (who were signed to Nine Inch Nails' TVT label).
Since when Eileen Rose Giadone has travelled far in many ways, and the music here (courtesy of a band that includes three members of Alabama 3) is cool and catchy, crisp and deft. Her voice rings with purity and romance. The songs are plangent, real and true. There is a sense of intimacy and veiled autobiography, too. In places it is lilting, quiet, haunting and sad. At other times it crashes and whoops - all "Blonde On Blonde", country rock and Crazy Horse, with howling and weeping guitars, and keyboards that thrill, chill, sparkle and spook. It is a great album; a subtly epic work of guts and guile with a rich and classic, timeless style. Buy it, and play it to death. Familiarity only deepens its sheer and sure emotive heft.

Eileen Rose - Shine Like It Does Her voice rings with purity and romance. The songs are plangent, real and true . . . It is a great album; a subtly epic work of guts and guile with a rich and classic, timeless style.

With a hip-shake shimmy and heart laid bare, here are songs of ache and hurt, strength and fear. Licks of love and flames of doubt. Album of the year? Well, probably not. There'll be others that'll shout louder and impress more, hoist the flag and catch that wave. Ya di ya di ya. But few, if any, will hit so hard, connect so deep or reverberate as long and sure.
Rose's debut, 'Shine Like It Does' in 2000, was a nifty thing of (vaguely) country-fired craft that fitted the time and established her name. But this is something else entirely. A huge step forward. A work of savage emotion, tenderly wrought, owing nothing to nobody. There's a sense of flow to it, too. And it grows, to conclusion. Only one track, 'Snake', jars, sounding dated and throwaway (though 'Two In One' perhaps doesn't hunker down fully and really let loose like it should). But the rest is sublime. 'See How I Need You', 'Good Man', 'Tom Waits Crooning' (the latter pure Eileen Rose) and 'For Marlene' written for the mother of a friend brutally murdered back home in Boston, the killer never caught. ('Grace in forgiving and all that other shit/That they tell you when they want to take the sting out/It never does, it never does/Not when you love someone who got bled out.')
In places this is extraordinary. Her voice a sheer, soaring smoulder. Yes, Eileen Rose stands apart; not hip and flighty, young or flash, but drawn and driven, on and ever on. She is that rare thing, a songwriter who can genuinely touch and move (and grab and still). And this is a mighty, powerful work. As beautiful as it is brave, as bold as it is true.

While Sheryl Crow sleeps, she dreams of being as good as Eileen Rose Giadone. A sultry Irish-Italian American and descendent of the legendary heavyweight world champ John Sullivan, this superb second album more than backs up the promise that was suggested, but not entirely realised, on her warmly received 2000 debut, Shine Like It Does. Spreading her musical wings way beyond the countrified acousting strum of many of her contemporaries, the angular rock 'n' roll of Snake and the fairground blues stomp of Two In One mark her card as a worldly talent, more than worthy of comparison with snakeskin rockers like Ryan Adams. The tender, weeping strings of Tom Waits' Crooning tear at the heartstrings, but the slide-guitar hoedown of Big Dog tops them all. A benchmark release for 2002, then? No question.

Motoring north on I-95 just north of Boston under a chilly April moon listening to this debut disc from decade-long London resident Eileen Rose (who, coincidentally, hails from the north Boston suburb of Saugus we had just driven through) turned out to be a wonderful bit of serendipity - a dark spring night with tenacious snow still clinging to the ground in stubborn patches is just about the perfect setting for the opaque blue tone of this album. Whether a bona fide blues, like the eponymous Rose which opens the disc, or the countryish laments which flavor much of the rest, it's clear than Eileen has seen more than one evening that lasted longer than she might have wished, one more sunrise through eyes shot with blood. At turns invoking a downtempo Joan Osborne (Walk The Jetty) or perhaps even an aggrieved Exene on Booze Talkin' (I Ain't Listenin') Eileen's still distinct tone manages to impart an unsettled feeling without ever revealing why. Don't let the uneven pacing distract you from the songs, or from trying to discover just what does make it shine like it does.

A feisty Boston singer with Italian and Irish roots, Eileen Rose has been hailed in some quarters as the new Alanis Morissette. Her debut album, however, suggests that she is closer in style to the more reflective Aimee Mann. Drawing inspiration from what sounds like a distressingly long list of broken love affairs, these are starkly emotive and richly melodic songs in a country-blues style, sung in Rose's clear and invigorating voice. The odd ill-advised rock-out aside, it all adds up to a surprisingly palatable collection of bittersweet, homespun laments.

Shine Like It Does, the debut CD of former Daisy Chain singer Eileen Rose, illustrates a wide range and understanding of human emotions. Rose is not afraid to examine the depths of her soul, questioning her self-confidence, regretting the past, and looking hopefully toward the future. The opening song, "Rose" opens with the lines "I was sure enough to come, I was dumb enough to stay", establishing her arrival, but also demonstrating that sometimes things don't turn out what we wish to be. "Rose" shows the singer looking for guidance, as she pleads in her Sheryl Crow/Stevie Nicks, bluesy style: So won't you take me by the hand? Won't you lead me somewhere safe? Because all the secrets of my soul aren't enough to keep me whole Aren't enough to make me break. "Lincoln Park," written and sung much like a 10,000 Maniacs tune, is a longing look at the past, sprinkled with bittersweet memories and the reminder that our lives are never quite as we imagine they will be: "We all had plans in a world that rises up to meet them. And we'd never look back. We laughed more then. I don't know. I guess I feel forgotten. Do you ever think that? But how can you cry when RKO is playing 'Sweet Caroline, good times never seemed so good'". Rose's voice is hard to pigeonhole, as she wanders from Loretta Lynn/Lucinda Williams territory ("Booze Talkin'"), to shy, almost Jewel-like musing ("Silver Ladle"), to straight-ahead rock in "Shining", which sounds like a lost Rolling Stones song. At times the artist seems be looking for salvation, yet unwilling or unable to pursue it. In "Still in the Family" she comments that "redemption's not for everyoneÉnot for Rose". In "Silver Ladle" she writes that "faith is a cradle, then the wind blows and the bough breaks. I'm hard at work breeding devils. A martyr, oh, do that real good." "Party Dress" laments "I shot for Heaven but came in low". Another theme is that of relationships. "Would You Marry Me?" poses that question to an imagined beau, while "Booze Talkin'" portrays an unfaithful lover caught in a compromising position with another woman. "New Penny" is about a chance meeting in a club: When a jukebox junkie with money left to spend makes a meal of it, Everybody's moving. And you're looking my way again. I got nothing to do in the morning And you're dancing and shining like a new penny. Raw and poignant, wistful and forceful, Shine Like It Does is an outstanding beginning for Eileen Rose. This disc will stand up well against anything by Sheryl Crow, Susan Tedeschi, or Patti Smith. Much like Pierce Pettis or VOL, Rose will stand as another unknown Compass artist that deserves our respect (and our ears).

Openly autobiographical, hopelessly romantic and sometimes darkly twisted, Eileen Rose has many stories to tell, and in the main they're not happy ones. An Irish/Italian/American now living in England, Rose documents the heartbreaking business of growing up "broke and tired, gray and bare/ Doesn't it make you want to be removed?" (Find Your Way Out). With a reference to Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline she evokes lost innocence in Lincoln Park, the lament of a woman who expected more from her future but has become disillusioned - "We all had plans in a world that rises up to meet them/ And we'd never look back/ We laughed more then". Seemingly haunted by a darkness, Rose sings of broken relationships, an "old world family ghost" and namechecks herself in Still In The Family, a moving - and chilling - tale of domestic abuse. She also uses her own name on the opening track where her father pleads with her to "never sing the blues" - fortunately for us, she disregarded his advice.