‘Raven’ is the debut album by alt-pop artist Isabel LaRosa that was released on April 18th amidst much anticipation. The album is a milestone for the breakout artist of the last couple of years, especially after LaRosa went viral on TikTok with “Baby, I’m Yours” in 2022. The Maryland native has a rapidly growing and passionate fanbase that’s connected with her style and authenticity in her music, having been with her from her late teens to early adulthood.
The songs on the album reflect these life changes, especially the album title, which LaRosa described, “the album title Raven represents something deeply personal to me, I’ve been obsessed with ravens and crows since I was little. There’s also a sports team from my hometown in Maryland called the Ravens, so in many ways they represent where I grew up. Raven to me feels like it captures the feeling of the album, which is dark and moody, while still maintaining a personal and emotional aspect. It feels like a perfect representation of me.” Tackling themes of love and loss and the resilience of overcoming heartbreak, many of the songs were co-written by LaRosa, her brother, Thomas, Monsters & Strangerz, and Delacey. Many of the songs on ‘Raven’ deal with the process of heartbreak and loss but also strength along the way, as “Girl of Your Dreams” demonstrates. The track samples the Leslie Gore classic, “You Don’t Own Me” to which LaRosa shared, “I’ve been obsessed with that song for as long as I can remember and it’s an insanely very strong thing to say. I just admire that so much and I’ve personally been a fan of the song for so long,” she stated, “We, Thomas and I just talked about it and we were like why don’t we just do our own version of ‘You Don’t Own Me’ and I wanted to keep it as close to the original as I could. It’s very like applicable to my life and it follows kind of like the theme of the the album very closely, so I was very excited to to to put my own spin on it.”
Currently on the ‘Psychopomp Tour’ in support of the album, LaRosa notes the reference to her lifelong fascination with ravens and its connection to the afterlife. “Psychopopmp is a guide into the afterlife,” she explained, “it can mean many different things in folklore and mythology, but oftentimes a raven is associated with being a guide into the afterlife, so it was a very cool way of like joining the two.”
Isabel LaRosa revisits B-Sides with host Pete Mar to talk about her debut album, ‘Raven’ and the title’s significance in her life. She talks about turning twenty years-old, the growth in her songwriting, the freedoms she felt in creating her debut, lessons learned from touring and more.
