Rose Cousins Releases New Album ‘Conditions Of Love – Vol 1’
March 14, 2025 BY Emma Orland
Today, acclaimed Grammy-nominated and multi-JUNO Award winning singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Rose Cousins releases her new album Conditions of Love – Vol 1. To help celebrate the occasion, Cousins is sharing a video for “Needed You,” a song that “speaks to the scars of childhood,” she says. Watch the video HERE and listen to Conditions of Love – Vol 1 HERE.
“A loving lament to those moments when we most needed love and it wasn’t available. Time passes and we figure out how to survive in the world we are born into. Later, out in the world on our own, we begin to see ourselves as two separate people: who we needed to be as a child, and the adult we have become, away from our family dynamic. Generational pain is real. You can run screaming from your childhood only to get to midlife and there it is, still waiting to be held, acknowledged. I don’t know that there’s a way to reconcile the emotional past. I know we can get stuck choosing between authenticity and connection. Love is constantly trying to endure and persist in endless conditions, whether our needs are getting met or not. We do the best we can.
In the end, Conditions of Love – Vol 1 journeys through longing and lands in a place of acceptance, perhaps the only real way forward.”
MORE ABOUT CONDITIONS OF LOVE – VOL 1
On her new album, Rose holds her listeners’ hands as she guides them on a journey through the “conditions of love.” Ever the emotional explorer, the Nova-Scotia-based artist seeks truth, in all its imperfection, in the depths of humans’ most complicated of emotions: love. The journey results in a striking clarity, and it’s the gift of that clarity that brings on surprising tears.
Rose shares, “Love feels great and makes us ridiculous. It’s tiring and intense, joyful and devastating. Falling in love, being in love and staying in love are all such different things. Being human is emotionally complicated enough without attempting to relate to another who is just as complex, and in the most vulnerable of arenas: romance. Love is wondrous and absurd (and very hard). Humour helps.”
Co-produced with trusted friend and longtime bandmate Joshua Van Tassel, Conditions of Love – Vol. 1 sees Rose return to her first love, the piano. “Piano is where I feel the most connected. It’s the best partner in expressing the emotion I’m mining,” she shares. She first introduced the upcoming body of work with the gorgeous, piano-driven ballad “Forget Me Not,” followed by the slow-burning, nostalgic “Borrowed Light,” the artful “Denouement,” the beautiful and emotional “K’s Waltz,” and the uplifting “I Believe in Love (and it’s very hard),” which Rose has called the cornerstone of the upcoming album.
Rose Cousins’ songwriting plumbs the depths of the human condition. Her work has garnered her two JUNO Awards (2013’s We Have Made a Spark & 2021’s Bravado), two Canadian Folk Music Awards, eleven East Coast Music Awards and one Grammy nomination (2018’s Natural Conclusion), along with praise from the likes of the CBC, No Depression, LA Times, Associated Press, Billboard, Folk Alley, and NPR, who raved “Cousins’ disarmingly fluid vocal tone has the ability to convey the most internalized feelings without an ounce of fuss.” Over the years, she has shared stages with Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jann Arden, Kathleen Edwards, Joe Henry and Anais Mitchell, and her music has fittingly underscored scenes from notable TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Fire Country, Batwoman and Heartland.
ROSE COUSINS NORTH AMERICAN TOUR:
March 29 – Fredericton, NB @ Wilmot United Church
April 1 – Sherwood Park, AB @ Festival Place Theatre
April 2 – Calgary, AB @ National Music Centre
April 3 – Saskatoon, SK @ The Basement
April 5 – Winnipeg, MB @ West End Cultural Centre
April 7 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz
April 8 – Kingston, ON @ The Broom Factory
April 9 – Peterborough, ON @ Market Hall Performing Arts Center
April 11 – Toronto, ON @ Masonic Temple – The Concert Hall
April 12 – Hamilton, ON @ The Westdale
April 13 – Ottawa, ON @ National Arts Centre
April 16 – Charlottetown, PE @ Confederation Centre Of The Arts
April 17 – Halifax, NS @ Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
April 18 – Moncton, NB @ Capitol Theatre (Moncton)
April 19 – Saint John, NB @ Imperial Theatre
May 7 – Vienna, VA (DC) @ Jammin Java
May 8 – Brooklyn, NY @ Littlefield
May 9 – Northampton, MA @ Iron Hors
May 10 – Groton, MA @ Groton Hill Music Center
June 13 – St John’s, NL @ Majestic Theatre
October 3 – Pender Island, BC @ Pender Islands Community Hall
October 4 – Victoria, BC @ Capital Ballroom
October 6 – Vancouver, BC @ St. James Community Square, Mel Lehan Hall
October 8 – Vernon, BC @ Vernon Performing Arts Centre
October 9 – Lake Country, BC @ Creekside Theatre
Conditions of Love – Vol 1 Tracklist
01 To Be Born (overture)
02 Forget Me Not
03 I Believe in Love (and it’s very hard)
04 Denouement
05 That’s How Long (I’ve waited for your love)
06 Needed You
07 Wolf and Man
08 K’s Waltz
09 Borrowed Light
10 How is this (the last time)
