On April 30th singer/songwriter Ashley Monroe, also known as Hippie Annie from The Pistol Annies will release her fifth studio album Rosegold via Mountainrose Sparrow/Thirty Tigers.  Pre order here.

Two years in the making, Ashley tracked and co – produced the album one track at a time rather than making demos.  The album has songs co-written with Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift, Lady A), Mikey Reaves (Maren Morris, Needtobreathe), Jake Mitchell (Ashley McBryde, Luke Bryan), Jordan Reynolds (Maddie & Tae, Dan + Shay), Ben West (Maddie & Tae, Lady A), and longtime producer/co-writer Tyler Cain (who co-wrote “Has Anybody Ever Told You” with Ashley) — to help build and produce full tracks in the studio. Rosegold was mixed by engineer Gena Johnson (John Prine, Jason Isbell)

Seductive, enthralling and hypnotic from the first track Siren, Rosegold is Ashley’s best album yet and is quite a distance from her usual country sound.

Ashley has such a beautiful tone to her voice and is naturally emotive in all her songs – Her voice is a melody in itself. A strong, natural country sounding vocal, Ashley has proven she can now sing any style of music with this album and her voice adds a hauntingly beautiful edge to a dreamy, trippy styled album which is simply divine.

Songs such as Siren, See, Drive, have a slight trip-hop element to them reminiscent to the 90’s Bristol groups but blended with a country/Americana vibe and a cool pop tone.

Gold has a wicked beat and addictive chorus to it which is energising.

Piano driven Flying is gorgeous and ghostly in the chorus with a classical music way about it and is one of the more hypnotic tracks off the album. Groove is a fun track with a 70’s style to it with a cool, relaxing beat.

The country element breathes more heavily in Til It Breaks and I Mean It and are very close to the sound we are used to from Ashley. I Mean It reminds me of her song Used from album Like a Rose. Her vocal riffs really shine on songs like this and show her as one of the most beautiful vocalists in the world.

New Me closes the album. An acoustic sound throughout the song, this song delivers such beautiful instrumentation and much like the rest of the album, every note matters as are perfectly placed and clearly had a lot of thought behind them.

The instrumentation and all round production on this album are spectacular and the music blends beautifully with Monroe’s vocals.

Just ten tracks on the album, Rosegold flows perfectly from beginning to end.

With breathtaking vocals, wonderful instrumentation, incredible mixing and production it is hard to not love this album.

Rosegold is stunning melodic album that has beautifully captivating songs and enchanting sounds that give you a feeling of serenity and paints an incredible dream-like picture that captures the listeners imagination and soothes  the soul.

Rosegold is definitely a contender for our album of the year as it is right up our street.

I can imagine this album in a live setting an I have never craved a live show more. I want to hear this live in a church setting, perhaps Union Chapel. The acoustics will bounce in such a way that the audience will be completely silent appreciating every moment.

This album is definitely going to be a long time favourite for sure.