Lucy Rose returns with Floral Dresses

Very good folk singer Lucy Rose has teamed up with very good folk trio The Staves for a new single Floral Dresses, her first material since 2015's very good album Work It Out. It might surprise you to discover that the result is very good.

A simply-strummed acoustic lament, it's a biting riposte to a lover who showers Lucy with gifts, but is somewhat lacking when it comes to basic respect.

I don't want to wear your floral dresses
And my lips won't be coloured
I don't want your diamond necklace
Your disapproval cuts through
"When I wrote Floral Dresses it really reminded me about who I was, and I always think that some of the best songs are the ones which can stand on their own with just one instrument," says Lucy, via press release. "The message is pretty clear and I hope other people will find comfort in it, and realise they are different but also the same as many people."

The video brings that to life - with various women singing Lucy's lines, hopefully ending with the same resolve to get up and leave.

Watch below.

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Lucy Rose plummets to her certain doom

One of the great things about making pop videos is that you get to tick off items from your bucketlist at other people's expense. Suddenly, Dave Grohl has a valid excuse to dress up like a woman; Taylor Swift can become one of Charlie's Angels; and Robin Thicke is able to cavort around with naked women and goats. Win / win.

But Lucy Rose has bigger ambitions than any of them. She wants to leap off the top of a waterfall, like James Bond at the start of Goldeneye.

I dread to think of the health and safety forms they needed to fill out over at Columbia Records but she actually did it. And the proof is in the video for Like An Arrow - one of the best tracks from her second album, even if it does have a whiff of the Mumford about it.

Watch below, and try to stop yourself from going: "NO, LUCY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" at the 2'30" mark.

Lucy Rose - Like An Arrow

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Video: Lucy Rose - I Tried

"I’m not just another girl with an acoustic guitar singing about how she feels," Lucy Rose told Digital Spy three years ago.

True enough, her second album barely features acoustic guitar at all, favouring instead a dusky, electronic soundscape that recalls the poppier moments of Massive Attack and the witchier moments of Goldfrapp.

"It's hugely different," she told XFM the other week. "It's nice different in ways because this time we went into a recording studio, instead of being in my parents' living room trying to make a record."

"But at the same time I did have those extra pressure that I didn't have before of making a record that the label wanted to put out and they felt was ready as well. It wasn't just down to me deciding: 'yeah, now it's time.'"

Nonetheless, the label (Columbia) has encouraged the 25-year-old flourish if the first two singles from the record are anything to go by.

Lead single Our Eyes, which I wrote about in March, is sophisticated, syncopated indie-pop; while her new song, I Tried is a classic "I fucked up" ballad with a saw-tooth sub-bass that'll upset the neighbours.

The video - which must have been intolerably boring to make - follows below.

Lucy Rose - I Tried

You should also check out Like An Arrow, another song from Rose's forthcoming album, Work It Out. Originally planned as the second single it seems, in this acoustic premiere, more akin to the gently strummed indie-pop of the singer's debut album - but it beguiles like a pealing bell on a Sunday morning.

Lucy Rose - Like An Arrow (Live at RAK Studios)

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Cotton's last stand

Today marked Fearne Cotton's last show on BBC Radio 1 (although she's popping up to host some of the Big Weekend coverage before she hangs her headphones up for good).

Never as bad a DJ as her detractors would have you believe, she championed Lana Del Rey and Fleet Foxes on daytime Radio 1, making up for her inexplicable love of Kodaline. Well, almost.

Her last show was a truly star-studded affair with appearances from Dave Grohl, Ricky Gervais and... er, Keith Lemon. But the best bits were the surprise songs recorded in her honour. And, bless the BBC, they've put them up online for your listening pleasure.

My personal favourite was this cover of Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 by Lucy Rose. In typical Live Lounge fashion, it took a perky pop song and turned it into a seriousface acoustic "jam". But in this instance it really works. A cover of unusual beauty.


Rae Morris also popped up with a cover of Ben Howard's Keep Your Head up that practically defined the word "ethereal".


Lianne La Havas played Fearne's favourite song, Etta James's At Last.


And Coldplay (no wait, come back) penned a tune especially for the occasion, called Gone But Not F. Cotton.

Witty and affectionate, it was a highlight of the show.


So #FarewellFearne, as twitter would have it ("it's not like I'm dead," the presenter wryly observed). You played some good music, you were brilliantly scathing about Fuse ODG, and you said "amazing" a lot. I'll miss you even more than the paparazzi who waited outside the BBC every day to see what kaftan you'd worn to cover up the baby sick.

I'm also looking forward to Clara Amfo's take on the show, and the Live Lounge, when she settles into the hotseat next week. I've heard they've revamped the whole format - so it'll be interesting to see what difference the new host makes.

And, if you're interested, here's Fearne's hand-picked playlist from her last show.

• Arctic Monkeys - Hold On, We're Going Home (Radio 1 Live Lounge, 13 Sep 2013)
• The Avalanches - Since I Left You
• Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home
• Kodaline - The One (Fearne Special)
• Chris Malinchak - So Good To Me
• Hozier - Do I Wanna Know? (Radio 1 Live Lounge, 15 Sep 2014)
• Take That - Pray (Radio 1 Live Lounge, 22nd November 2010)
• James Blake - Limit To Your Love
• James Bay - (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher
• Duke Dumont - The Giver (Reprise)
• Royal Blood - Out Of The Black (Radio 1 Live Lounge, 18 Feb 2015)
• First Aid Kit - Stay Gold
• Dave Grohl - My Hero (Radio 1 Live Lounge, 4 Nov 2009)
• Kings of Leon - Dancing On My Own (Radio 1 Live Lounge, 10 Sep 2013)
• Jack White - Sixteen Saltines
• Lucy Rose - 9 To 5
• Coldplay - Gone But Not F Cotton
• D.A. - Glowing
• Adele - Hometown Glory (Radio 1 Live Lounge, 27th Jan 2011)
• Eaves - As Old As The Grave
• Rae Morris - Keep Your Head Up
• SOAK - Immigrant Song
• Lianne La Havas - At Last
• Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
• Darwin Deez - Constellations
• Tom Odell - Farewell Fearne
• Lana Del Rey - Video Games

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Lucy Rose's new video is... er, unique

Wan songstress Lucy Rose got her break singing for Bombay Bicycle Club - so it's hardly a surprise that her own music is a politely-strummed take on indie electronica. That's not a criticism. There's always room for crafted-and-catchy but undemanding melodies on a Sunday afternoon at Discopop Towers.

In any case, Fearne Cotton's declared herself a Lucy Rose fan, so you're probably not going to escape it just yet.

Rose has just released her new video, and her new video is brilliant - if decidedly odd. Our Eyes sees the 25-year-old Warwickshire singer wearing an outfit made from sausages and dog biscuits, then being set upon by two Alsatians. She also wears a suit made of chips while surrounded by seagulls and an outfit made of grass near some Shetland ponies.

It's either a work of genius or the most disturbing fetish video of the year.

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