Caroline Rose sounds like she’s having a blast even if life can be a bummer. Her new album LONER conveys a sarcasm very few are able to audibly create.

It’s been almost four years since Rose’s folk-tinged I Will Not Be Afraid, but LONER makes it feel like a different lifetime ago. Her new album is carefully all over the place, ditching pretty much every aspect of the genre that brought her recognition. Opener “More of the Same” comes right out of the HAIM playbook, while the whole album benefits from the current 80s rehash. “Cry” and “Jeannie Becomes a Mom” rely on her knack for neo-soul. But it’s tracks like “Money” and “Soul No. 5,” where Rose allows her personality to burst out of any restraints, that hit the hardest. On the latter, Rose raps, only to transition into the biggest, simplest hook on LONER. “Bikini” deals with sexism in the music industry blatantly and with style. Closer “Animal” gets the closest to modern pop but, like the rest of LONER, she delivers it with her signature wink, nudge and dedication.

“I want to make music that sounds as manic as I feel,” Rose said about LONER claiming the record was “as much inspired by Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears as it was late '70s punk.” All those influences can be heard and Caroline Rose's new direction fits perfectly for someone with this much personality.