thisheartwillburnrightout.com:

Brian Rozendal is a literature graduate. It becomes very obvious from the beginning of “Lean” that he has the tools to articulate just about anything. An ex-conservative evengelical christian as well, Rozendal has many topics to reflect on for his material. Now with all his vast knowledge what would he decide to write about? Maybe 19th century prose a la Decemberists? Maybe fictional story tales of grandiose metaphors regarding our countries current political polarity? No, when given the option Rozendal goes for the one topic that trumps them all…that love can really suck.

Most the time I don’t know why I even bother thinking about love myself. I have, however, realized a very important reason for love. Upon losing it, great art has historically been created. Brian Rozendal must agree with me on this theory because “Lean” is riddled with “I hate to love you” anthems. With 7 tracks and coming in under a half hour, it is a short album filled with emotional, personal songs centered around the loss of a relationship and reinventing yourself afterward. Rozendal uses contemporary songwriting and great musicianship (help from the likes of Aubrey Webber on cello) to convey songs of heart ache and redemption. Now loss of love is a very, very common topic in many songs, but Brian has some real issues underlining these. On “Flowers in Winter” you can hear the desperation in his voice [You can never bury me/for I will rise up from the ground] and sincerity washes over his best line in “Lullaby” [How can you ever be the one to love when your heart has gone to sleep?]. Those two songs anchor this album down as the front runners of 7 lovely songs. The first two songs, “Full of Love” and “Catastrophes”, sound as if they may fall into the pit of middle of the road songwriting but make up for it with their hooky choruses. “Catastrophes” especially exudes Rozendal’s need to articulate his message during the first chorus [You can't handle my catastrophes, you can't handle me delicately]. The final three songs, “Leave me Alone”, “Galaxy” and “New Ground”, keep the common theme with straight ahead song structure and attention to lyrical content [I thought I found something new and uncomplicated, but that can never be you].

Rozendal’s voice is the most endearing aspect of his music. At times very vulnerable, at others it tears through and distorts when it should. The use of minimal instrumentation only pushes it to the foreground more and Brian completely takes that stage with confidence. This EP is a solid start to a songwriter’s catalog and a very promising look at what will come.