To Love by themillionstars

When serious, classically trained, highfalutin artists decide to create something that might have wide appeal, they’re not always successful. Salvador Dali’s range of wallpapers never hit the high street, Ted Hughes’ greeting cards didn’t exactly fly off the shelves and Gordon Ramsey’s burger joint was a dry, tasteless affair. Anyone who’s heard Paul McCartney’s ‘Standing Stone’ knows the same can be true in reverse.

Rose from themillionstars is a serious musician – the kind that can look at a huge score of atonal music for an 80 piece orchestra and hear it all - every nuance - in her head. That’s why Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Gavin Bryars, Judith Weir, Lisa O’Neill and John Paul Jones hire her to make sure that the music they compose gets onto the page, is understood by the orchestra and reaches the audience without anything being lost in translation, and why Tindersticks and Terry Hall have called on her to perform with them.

Imagine focusing that level of musicianship on an album of original folk/pop songs … as we’ve seen, it’s a risk. The difference here is that Rose is, and always has been, a head…..Joni, Kate Bush, Carole King, and more recently Devon Sproule and Julia Holter reside on her record shelves alongside the Stravinsky and Ravel you might expect to see. The result is that themillionstars sound like nothing else – echoes of classic singer-songwriters and the avant-garde concert hall bounce around, mix and sometimes clash, but are always held in thrall to beautiful melodies and that voice.

As The Big Takeover magazine said when ‘To Love’ was first released: “The UK’s Rose and Malcolm Moore are purveyors of slinky, moody, nocturnal pop magic. Rose’s hushed, night-owl vocals are the star, and her every haunted utterance makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand at attention. ‘Flowers Strung On A Tree’, ’Moth’, ‘The Kiss’, all weave a certain spell; the kind that forces you to think of days long gone and pine over good things past. It’s nearly impossible not to examine your life up until now when listening to Rose’s plaintive, brutally honest voice. Melodica, acoustic guitar, quickly-tuned radio static and cleverly spare arrangements buoy this special female voice. Don’t miss out on this, especially if you’re a fan of spectral, female-led pop songs..”

themillionstars is Rose Moore, a musician and composer from Chelmsford, UK. She has recorded and performed with Tindersticks, Terry Hall, Jarvis Cocker and Sort Sol and edited the works of Peter Maxwell Davies, Gavin Bryars, Judith Weir, Lisa O’Neill and John Paul Jones. "It’s impossible not to examine your life when listening to Rose’s plaintive, brutally honest voice." (Big Takeover Magazine)