Rosie Miles - Still Life EP (2023)

Rosie Miles is an alt-indie singer songwriter and storyteller based in Leeds. Her debut EP 'Still Life' moves effortlessly between the world of Folk & Jazz, evoking a welcome nostalgia of the 70s songwriter movement.

When the world shut down in 2020, Rosie Miles was paralysed, not literally but figuratively. The result is her debut EP, Still Life, which she calls “a moving study of unmoving parts.” It is a fascinating record of sounds and silences, lightness and darkness, all being watched from afar as life goes on, even though everything comes to a complete stop.

Miles examines a world that no longer makes sense, like a thought bubble with nothing in it. The Curious Case of Dustin Sunbeams makes it clear, “These days my duvet holds me down/ In her toxic embrace/ And I can’t face the scene outside my windowpane.” While everyone experienced scenes like that, what Miles does is bring those moments to life musically. A haunted guitar plays against eerie voices, and echoes of wind help frame an image of life that seems to have come to a halt.

Moments come toward you, haunting your memories as you try to dismiss the past few years. The lushness of Ladybird seems almost shocking. More than merely piano, guitar, bass and drums, the song, infused with a touch of jazz, gives it a dream-like quality, even as the lyrics deal with more harsh realities; “Lady try/ Be meek and mild/ For the men in your life and the sake of their pride/ And the man in the sky.” Yet is meek and mild what anyone searched for during those endless days?

The world that Miles inhabited during those lockdown days seemed to have been one where dreams and reality intersected, sometimes running parallel, sometimes at obtuse angles. Nothing quite fits as Pieces of Sky relates, “Sky light so bright/ Can’t sleep beneath your glow/ A lonely man walks down the road/ A flower that won’t grow/ Students rent the sky next to mine.” Opening with just guitar, the song builds, adding elements, growing bigger even as she realises that while she lives in a right-brained world, science and progress seem to carry on in a left-brained world while violin and cello add colour to a painting that grows with or without her.

Over six songs, Rosie Miles captivates, revealing thoughts and feelings from a time when that was all we really had. She lets us inside her head and life, and along the way, we come to understand some of her motivations and our own. Still Life may simply be a snapshot of a moment, but it is much more. Not only does it showcase a new talent, but it also gives us a window into our world and one inhabitant who has much more to say.