Rosie Carney explores denial on new single 'break the ground'

Donegal singer-songwriter Rosie Carney has shared the second single from her new album i wanna feel happy in the form of ‘break the ground’.

Following up on lead single ‘dad’, she explains the track is “a song about being in denial when things are falling apart. Lyrically, I kind of wanted the song to feel like some kind of uncomfortable dreamlike world, the type where you feel heavy and when you run, your legs barely move and the killer is catching up, but in this case you’re pretending like you can’t even see them.”

Since overcoming early music industry woes with 2019's critically acclaimed debut Bare, Rosie Carney has quietly emerged as one of the most compelling forces in Irish music.

Consistently taking a fearlessly vulnerable position in her songwriting, the Hampshire-born, Ireland-raised singer-songwriter has been refreshingly open about her own mental health struggles – which flared up once again over lockdown. Her previous project saw her cover the entirety of one of the most famously anguish-fuelled but devastatingly beautiful albums of the late 20th century: Radiohead’s The Bends.

Having returned to Donegal during the Covid pandemic, Carney recently reflected on her home:

“The community where I am here is so small,” she explained to us in 2021. “I have a horse over here, and I’ve been doing loads of horse-riding through these old backroads. My appreciation for where I live has come back a thousand fold. Just being out, and able to observe where I live, has been really special. I feel like I’ve reconnected with that, and my surroundings."

“I was about to go in and record an album – and in hindsight, it’s so good that I didn’t,” she said in 2021. “I really struggled with my sense of identity, and I sunk. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on. But coming back home to Ireland really helped with that."

i wanna feel happy arrives on 27th May via Color Study.

Check out ‘break the ground’ below.

Revisit Carney's 2021 interview with Hot Press on The Bends here.

i wanna feel happy Tracklist:

1. i hate sundays
2. break the ground
3. dad
4. chihiro
5. ceiling
6. tidal wave
7. sugar
8. time waits for no waiting room
9. send me home
10. i wanna feel happy
11. blame it on the sun