Rosso Tierney's Set You Free is a song you can cry to, play to someone you are about to break up with, and then replay at any possible moment; this is a heartbreak anthem with beautiful, melodic, and raw grace. At the very first notes, the track reaches out and wraps you in a bittersweet embrace of achingly beautiful piano, and its soaring guitar work as catharsis played out in musical form. Every inch of the song is soul – the soul of the song is Tierney’s vocals, which skip from delicate and vulnerable to powerhouse flaying of a belter, mirroring the push and pull of love and loss.
The emotional weight is raw, relatable and human, but channeled in a way more modern storytellers of our present age, like Benson Boone, know how to pull off; there’s disdain in the chord progressions, though there’s also a bit of Bowie-esque sophistication in there. A standout moment on the guitar solo is a wordless cry of release that says everything. What makes *Set You Free* so interesting is the spiritual undertone running through it that it is more than just a parting of ways; but rather cutting the invisible cord of past and future. He takes his own personal pain and makes it something universal and so comforting for anyone who's ever had to walk away.
The song is polished but intimate, melding grand arena ready hooks with the honest late night confession. *Set You Free* isn't just free of a lover, but of being enmeshed and the intention is to give you a song to help you see that life evolves beyond this and that endings are opportunities to begin again. Have tissues close by.
