Ciaran

Róisín is an Irish girls’ name that means ‘little rose’. A delicate, feminine name that at

first seems at odds with Ciarán McDonald’s debut solo album. The music is confronting,

sometimes confusing: tender one minute then brutal the next. Róisín is also the middle

name Ciarán was to be given if he’d been born a girl, and it’s this line between the

feminine and masculine that the record interrogates through pretty melodies coupled

with warped, disconcerting sounds. Stepping out from the adolescent moniker

Bearface, the one-time Brockhampton member took his time finding his sound,

experimenting with styles and approaches until it felt right. The title Róisín is part of

the gentle reclamation of his own name, and his Irishness too. The result is a record

that unfurls a little more every time you listen, a little rose growing its thorns and

coming into bloom.