Esther Rose was on a long solo drive when she started writing the opening title track ofWant,her stunning fifth album. At first, the words seemed almost like a joke, something to keep herselfamused as the miles passed. “I want a puppy, but I don't want a mess. I want to know where I’mgoing without GPS,” she sang from behind the wheel. Soon, the idea snowballed into a list ofdesires that spanned existential, spiritual, and mundane; romantic to platonic to familial; at oncewildly ambitious yet piercingly relatable; all set to a catchy melody that blends her pop instinctswith country storytelling and the raw immediacy of a basement punk show. In other words, shewas on her way to another classic Esther Rose song.

This precise blend has made the Santa Fe-based artist one of her generation’s most belovedsongwriters: someone whose live shows are known to conclude in mass tears and group hugs.Still, something was different this time. “For me, these songs felt like revelations,” she explains,comparing the 11-song record to a memoir, alive with kinetic storytelling and personal insight. In its newly direct and stirringly nuanced writing, you’ll hear about rock bottom encounters, shifting relationships with substances, evolving perspectives on adult partnership, and, as evidenced bythose early lines in “Want,” a few jokes along the way. Vivid and bracing,Wantplaces you in thepassenger seat while each of these feelings arrive.

To match the multi-dimensional tone of the writing, Rose has made the most adventurous,hardest-hitting record of her career. Working with producer Ross Farbe and recording live-to-tape in Nashville’s Bomb Shelter, she travels as far as she’s been from the stripped-downclassic country of celebrated early work like 2017’sThis Time Last Nightand 2019’sYou MadeIt This Far. Following the wide-open serenity of 2023’s momentousSafe to Run, she now leanstoward confrontational arrangements full of distortion and full-band spontaneity, never sacrificingaclassicist’s gift for melody that makes each song instantly memorable.

“Making this album was the most beautiful experience of my life,” Rose explains, describing theeuphoria of sharing these intimate stories among trusted collaborators like guitarist KunalPrakash, drummer Howe Pearson, bassistGina Leslie, and pedal steel player John JamesTourville. She also enlisted friends like singer-songwriter Dean Johnson (who duets in thestunning “Scars”) and New Orleans rock band Video Age (who she co-wrote “tailspin” with) toflesh out her vision. Ranging from stark solo performances to grungy blowouts, the albummaintains a steady focus while never staying too long in one place. (Like David Bowie, Rosewould arrive at the studio in carefully chosen outfits toset the tone for each session, guiding herbandmates to follow the mood.)

To reach this level of confidence, Rose had to recalibrate her entire relationship with music.When she concluded the tour forSafe to Run, she considered quitting altogether, feelingexhausted and depleted, seeing no way to continue at her relentless pace. But after quittingdrinking and finding new momentum in therapy, she devoted herself to the new material, lettingideas flow without worrying about the final product. She considered making an electro-popalbum; a self-titled acoustic record. Eventually, she began categorizing her disparate ideasunder the working title The Therapy LP

“There are things that I have tiptoed around in my writing—and in my life—that I wasn't ready tolook at,” she reflects, “and now I’m going for it.” The results are breakthroughs like “Had To” and“Rescue You” that tether her tightly structured melodies to narratives that bring distressingsubject matter down to earth. And where her love songs in thepast often found universalresonance in simple questions about heartbreak, these ones explore complex subjects likeaccountability and true connection: “Baby, I’ve got scars that you cannot see/Love them for whatthey gave to me,” she sings boldly in “Scars."

This level of vulnerability is new from Esther Rose—a vow to be known more fully by heraudience, herself, and the people in her life. “Each time I write a new album, I go a little deeper,”she says. “For me, it’s been very challenging to stay... I’malways packing the Subaru in mymind.” And while she can still craft a road song like nobody else—“Two days on the highway,solo drive/Today is the greatest day of my life,” she sings in “tailspin”—she now searches forstability, even when that means confronting internal chaos. The album’s closing song, titled“Want Pt. 2,” returns Rose to her old hometown of New Orleans during Mardi Gras, watching aRolling Stones cover band in a bar she frequented back in the day. She’s teary-eyed,surrounded by loved ones, finding new profundity in a shaky rendition of “You Can’t Always GetWhat You Want.” As she reflects on the scene—even interpolating some of the Stones’ lyricsand melodic cues—her friends provide celebratory backing vocals as the band thrashes away.It’s a fitting finale for the strongest, widest-reaching album of her career—a moment when thepast, present, and future collide, a panorama of emotions, the kind of party you never want to leave.