Rose McGowan - RM486 - Single [Review]

Rose McGowan recently released her debut single "RM486," and to put it simply, I can't get enough of it. A lot of news sources are referring to it as her music debut, which isn't technically true. McGowan has recorded music before for the Grindhouse: Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror soundtrack, recording songs such as "You Belong to Me" and "Two Against the World." This is, however, her single debut as well as her debut as an original musician. I went a while not knowing what the title was in reference to, but McGowan has told Billboard that RM are her initials, while 486 is in reference to an abortion drug. I'm still not 100% sure what that has to do with the song, but at least the title is not completely confusing to me now (although I am honestly surprised that I didn't figure out that RM is in reference to her initials on my own). The song grabbed my attention when I saw it advertised because I know Rose McGowan from her role as Paige Matthews on Charmed and from her brief role as young Cora on Once Upon a Time. The advertisement was actually for the music video (which features a shorter edit of the song), one of the most interesting music videos that I have ever seen. The music video features Rose McGowan portraying multiple different characters such as a nude, bald, and completely white alien with very long fingernails and a character with blood-red skin covered in glitter.

The song itself is very electronic in nature and has an outer spacey feel to it, sounding almost like a retro song from the eighties. There are a couple of artists of whom it reminds me as well as an artist of whom the music video reminds me, but I will keep the comparisons to myself out of respect for Rose, who has said that she wants nothing more than to be herself, to not be compared to other musicians. The song opens with the following monologue: "I've seen things that people can't imagine, attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark, and all those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die. Time to die." This is a quote from the 1982 sci-fi film Blade Runner, a quote which is almost verbatim but is loosely paraphrased. The vocals here are considerably quieter than the accompanying music and are a bit difficult to understand without looking up the lyrics (even Genius does not know some of the lyrics), and this is honestly true in regards to most of the song's vocals, due, in part, to the vocals being so echoey. The song's chorus says that she is "only here to paint color on the sun," which I think is in reference to Rose wanting to make a difference with her art and with her music. Painting color on the sun (if, of course, such a thing were possible) would affect the entire world because the entire world would see it, and the entire world would be more colorful. I believe that that is what Rose is saying here, that she wants to make an impact.

I am in love with the beat of this song and with the therapeutic "feel good" tone to it. I have been listening to it non-stop for days now. As I said, my only complaint with the song is that I wish that McGowan's vocals were louder and easier to understand, but I do sincerely hope that McGowan will continue down this path of original music and will eventually release a full-length album (and by eventually, I mean soon). Although she has said that she doesn't know for sure if and when an album will come out because she isn't signed to a record label (yet), she has also said that she has come to hate the world of acting because (for one reason) it is, most of the time, through the voices of men, meaning that most writers, producers, directors, etc. are men, which is true. I therefore don't see her doing much more acting if that is how she feels about it. She seems really enthusiastic about this song and about being a musician in general, so I think that we can expect more from her as long as she gets signed, and even if she doesn't get signed, she managed to put together and release this amazing song, so I am thinking that she can put together and release more amazing singles and maybe even release a full-length album independently. I really don't think that she would have any problem getting signed to a record label, though. She is well-known already, and "RM486" is getting quite a bit of media hype. Here's to wishing Rose McGowan the best of luck painting color on the sun!