Released: 2024
Label: Core Entertainment, LLC
When you tune into “Complicated,” the stellar album from Josh Ross, you’re strapping in for a smorgasbord of rock narratives that traverse the spectrum of the human experience. Released in 2024 by Core Entertainment, LLC, “Complicated” echoes the age-old fight and flight instincts inherent in rock ‘n’ roll. Like the maturing bourbon in charred oak barrels, Ross’s style aged beautifully, bridging the gap between time-tested rock themes and fresh narratives.
This album is an invitation to an open, unfiltered dialogue about life’s ups and downs. With tracks like “Single Again,” “Tell Me A Lie,” and “Truck Girl,” Ross crafts a blueprint of profound storytelling. He explores the bittersweet dichotomy of love and loss in “Complicated” and “Matching Tattoos,” and brings to life the underbelly of rebellion in “She Don’t Smoke” and “Trouble.” To round off this rollercoaster, Ross lights up “Burn Back” with a fiery resolve to thrive against the odds.
So let’s get into it. From “Single Again” to “Matching Tattoos”, here we are breaking down the album “Complicated” by “Josh Ross.”
1 Single Again
This melancholic tune explores the aftermath of a relationship gone sour, and the lingering hope for a rekindling. The heartache is as tangible as a dive bar’s dim lights, especially when Ross croons, “I got a king size bed, just missing a Queen”. This confession of incomplete solitude epitomizes the song’s soulful narrative, mingling despair with desire. Ross’s empathetic romance is no stranger to the balladry of classic rock, yet it carries a modern edge with its bold honesty. The mention of “that same ole Tennessee 615” binds the song to a place, escalating its emotional resonance. “Single Again” feels like an invitation, unraveling Ross’s vulnerable side in the face of lost love.
2 Tell Me A Lie
3 Truck Girl
Stripped of pretense, it’s raw, and honest, with the standout line: “Why you’re getting in his truck, girl? Are you really giving up, girl?” serving as the agonized refrain of a jilted lover. The lyrics dive deeper into the stark reality of severed relationships, further exemplified when he sings, “I don’t understand, girl, We had all these plans, girl.” Ross masterfully encapsulates the bewilderment and jealousy of watching someone you cherish build a life with another. “Truck Girl” reflects Ross’s gift for capturing authentic human emotions and sets the bar high for his discography to follow.
4 Complicated
Ross delivers a vehement indictment of a failed relationship with the hard-hitting line, “Love ain’t really all that hard to make, but back and forth, and out the door, we wasted.” The bitter regret seeping out of these words drips into the haunting chorus, an echo reverberating throughout the track — “Why’d we have to go and complicate it?” This is a question many of us might have found ourselves asking during the inevitable unraveling of romance’s grand illusions. Ross’ potent lament dovetails with a youthful, energetic rhythm, drawing listeners into an emotional maelstrom. Josh Ross has created a rock anthem for the heartbroken, encapsulating the heady mix of love, loss, and regret that swirls in the aftermath of a relationship’s end.
5 She Don’t Smoke
6 Trouble
Slow-burning and intricately layered, the track echoes with the torment found in his lyrics, “Steady missing you, I’m getting through another double/A white flag waving, come and save me.” A brutally honest chorus serves as the main player here, making a poignant plea for salvation. Ross pens down his struggles, invoking both Jack Daniels and Jesus – subtly emphasizing they’re both ineffective substitutes for his lost love. This line, “’Cause Jack D, and Jesus ain’t you,” resonates deeply, reflecting the authenticity and bitter reality of pain that can’t be assuaged by drink or divine intervention. It’s craft like this that solidifies Ross’s mastery in creating a relatable anthems of heartbreak, and “Trouble” is testament to that.
7 Burn Back
8 Matching Tattoos
This song is a road trip down memory lane where Ross and an old flame are inked with youthful optimism in Florida’s sunny Keys. The promise, ‘something ’bout forever,’ is punctured by the brutal realism of Ross’s line ‘but what’s that mean at 22?’ – a stark reminder of the fleeting permanence of relationships with the visible scars we bear. Like the leftover ink on his skin, Ross’s lyrics are painful with longing and wonderment as he muses, ‘I wonder where you are now.’ While Ross might regret those matching tattoos, he offers listeners a vulnerable narrative etched with gritty emotional realism that, much like those tattoos, lingers long after the song ends.
