After a nearly three-year Kali Uchis album drought, the singer is set to return with a new offering in March called Red Moon in Venus. Returning to English (though of course there will be Spanish songs on the album) after paying homage to her heritage with the Spanish-language Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios), her first single from the record is “I Wish You Roses.” Unlike Miley Cyrus’ more venomous use of flowers as a metaphor in the wake of a relationship, Uchis wields roses to provide well wishes to an erstwhile boyfriend by declaring, “Ooh, never thought I would be without you/I wish you love, I wish you well/I wish you roses while you can still smell ’em.” For, as Uchis sees it, wishing someone “roses” infers that you have the “goodness” of spirit to set someone free without rancor or animosity—as is so often the case during a breakup. Indeed, an entire musical genre has been centered around it, with Taylor Swift reaping the most financial benefits from her pain and contempt (not to say there’s anything wrong with that…might as well turn heartache into gold, after all).
This is why Uchis’ song is so rare in a sea of acerbic breakup singles (joined perhaps only by “thank u, next” in seeing the positive in a relationship demise). Playing up the rose theme for the video, obviously, Uchis enlisted Cho Gi-Seok, known for his surreal photography, to direct. With his help, Uchis paints a world colored in serenity and feminine divinity. For, as she said of titling the album, “Red Moon in Venus is a timeless, burning expression of desire, heartbreak, faith and honesty, reflecting the divine femininity of the moon and Venus.” What Uchis also reflects in the video is being at peace with moving on, a feat that is perhaps most often expected of women anyway. As Uchis stated, the core of the message is “about being able to release people with love. It could be a friend, a lover, or someone else, but the point is to celebrate releasing people from your life without being resentful or bitter.” The great conundrum… especially if one of the people in the equation was left against their will.
To visually manifest the semi-reluctant beneficence of the track, the video for “I Wish You Roses” commences with the camera’s perspective moving down a thorny vine. We then see a fresh, vibrant rose open up before Uchis’ own eye does—bedecked in bright, over-the-top makeup that matches her dew-dropped lips. The sexual imagery of a flower is also played up with its “center area” separated out from the rest of its structure as it is suspended in midair next to Uchis’ own set of lips (the ones on her face, mind you). Do with that imagery what you will, but a flower can’t help its sexual nature. Which is why it’s kind of fucked up that Anne Geddes was always photographing babies in flower scenarios. Sure, new life and all that, or whatever—but still. Those photos are a creep’s sweet fantasy.
Uchis, however, veers far more toward Mena Suvari as Angela Hayes in American Beauty territory. But not before the “labia flower” is shown in a transition that then focuses on Uchis’ own “triangle” as Gi-Seok reveals her next look to be in a very Doja Cat-esque state, complete with a bald head and multi-colored naked body. At this juncture, she announces, “I was a rose in a garden of weeds”—an analogy that channels Lana Del Rey (for whom Uchis once opened on her LA to the Moon Tour) saying, “In the land of gods and monsters/I was an angel.” Uchis’ reference to being a rose among the weeds (that, clearly, included her ex) also reminds one of the Phil Spector-penned “Spanish Harlem”—sometimes better recognized as “A Rose in Spanish Harlem.” Originally performed by Ben E. King, he croons, “There is a rose in Spanish Harlem/A red rose up in Spanish Harlem/It is the special one, it’s never seen the sun/It only comes out when the moon is on the run.” A comment on a woman who is expected to survive and thrive among such harsh conditions as the ones that exist in this world, King also adds (somewhat grossly), “I’m goin’ to pick that rose and watch her as she grows in my garden.” But Uchis needs no one to help her grow in “I Wish You Roses”—for she’s the one who already possesses all the wisdom. Including the sagacity to know that it’s better to let go and wish someone well than to hold on and let the poison of vitriol consume you. But hey, try telling that to an egregiously wronged woman like Beatrix Kiddo (or Britney Spears, for that matter), or even just a clingy dude like Pádraic Súilleabháin in The Banshees of Inisherin.
Uchis continues on her innuendo-laden journey with lyrics that tease, “My petals are soft and silky as sheets.” We soon see her picking the thorny rose we were made certain to notice at the outset as she also remarks, “So do not be afraid to get pricked by the thorns/While I’m here, I’m someone to honor/When I’m gone, I’m someone to mourn/But if you and my heart should someday drift apart/I’ll make surе to give you these blеssings because they’re all I’ve got.” Again, these are very progressive sentiments for someone—especially a woman—to have after a breakup, usually so colored by bitterness and resentment as it can be. Disciples (and Calvin Harris) once asked, “How deep is your love?” and Uchis is happy to answer, “My love’s deep as the ocean, don’t you drown on me/Just know, any love I gave you is forever yours to keep.” It’s a sentiment out of Madonna’s Ray of Light-era playbook (e.g., “Like A Flower,” during which she remarks of a lover past, “You’ll always be a part of me… Like a flower, you grow”)—therefore, the Kabbalah playbook. Which speaks to letting go of any hatred in one’s heart, including when things don’t go their way in romance. Madonna herself once said in 2005’s I’m Going to Tell You A Secret, “It’s the hardest thing in the world to do. I mean, can you imagine forgiving people that, you know, fuck you over, for lack of a better word? To actually get to the end of your day and not only forgive… but to wish [those people] well.” And that’s what Uchis mostly seeks to do, even when there are certain shade-drenched lines like, “With pretty flowers can come the bee sting (ooh, never thought I would be without you)/But I wish you love, I wish you well.”
And while she’s wishing that wellness, she perhaps wants to remind her ex of what he’s missing as she reenacts the aforementioned overhead shot in American Beauty with all of her “strategic parts” covered in petals. Adding to the tradition of flower imagery in music (as Miley recently has), Uchis brings a new high to the “rose canon” of songs, among such gems as Aretha Franklin’s “A Rose Is Still A Rose” and, yes, Poison’s “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”—with the eponymous flower in question providing no shortage of inspiration for analogies related to love and growth (and, needless to say, sex).
Alas, Uchis’ message of “letting go” feels ultimately negated with the song’s outro, during which she lies down inside a rose (again, very Anne Geddes) and chants softly, “You’re gonna want me back/You’re gonna want me bad/You’re gonna—/You know we can’t do that/You know we can’t do that/You know we—” In other words, to paraphrase Outkast, “Lean a little closer, roses really smell like shit.”
