Following the visceral introduction of her title track, “Hollybaby,” NYC-based artist Stella Rose now unveils two more videos from her newly released Hollybaby EP: “Drugstore Romeo” and “Beautiful Twentysomethings.”
If the EP’s initial offerings flirted with punk ferocity and poetic alt-rock swagger, these two tracks push even further into nocturnal territory. Stella Rose’s sultry rock-driven sound—borne of lineage and personal urgency—calls to mind post-punk’s uncompromising spirit and the simmering darkness of the alt-rock underground. It nods, perhaps, to PJ Harvey’s predatory poise or Patti Smith’s stern poeticism, yet never rests on mere invocation. Instead, these tracks throb with their own vital force, each measure pressing forward into unexplored corners.
“Drugstore Romeo” slinks through claustrophobic corridors, as if we’ve stumbled upon a clandestine scene in the heart of Berlin after midnight. Directed by Fynn Stoldt, the video prowls through cramped chambers and shifting shadows, bodies caught in anxious communion. The footage feels alive with friction and fever—an otherworldly habitat where smoke and sweat cling to the walls, and Stella Rose’s presence radiates like a dark beacon. Her fascination with swans—creatures deceptively serene above the waterline yet churning ceaselessly below—mirrors the tension in “Drugstore Romeo,” a track that merges lure and longing in a single restless gesture.
Watch the video for “Drugstore Romeo” below:
On the other side of this spectrum, “Beautiful Twentysomethings” shifts into a languid grayscale dream, where the filmic language trades cramped heat for a chilly coolness, evoking grainy European cinema and hazy backroom glamour. Here, youth and poise collide head-on with an intimate blues heartbeat. Faces emerge and vanish in stark black-and-white, flickering like half-remembered fragments of a vanished era. This is a piece that conjures half-lit rooms and lingering glances, a testament to Stella Rose’s command of mood and tension. Instead of surrendering to nostalgia, the video challenges easy interpretation. It hovers in a liminal place, an ode to restless states of becoming.
Watch the video for “Beautiful Twentysomethings” below:
This restless energy on display via these two tracks thrums through the entire Hollybaby EP. Displacing herself from the familiar rhythms of New York in favor of Los Angeles’s stifling heat, Stella Rose accelerated her process, forging new shapes from raw demos while temperatures soared. Alongside collaborator Yves Rothman, she tapped into this feverish discomfort, pulling tense, bristling elements from the air and threading them into her loudest, rawest work to date.
Addressing the project’s arc, Stella Rose explains, “Like any piece of work, I’d hope that there’s something listeners can find in the music that resonates with their own experience. There can be a sense of isolation in these well-defined worlds we create as human beings. Beauty in all the madness—these themes feel ever present in this EP.”
Hollybaby is out now via KRO Records. Experience the full release below:
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