Revisiting Cleo Sol’s Rose in the Dark: Finding Light Six Years Later

Bhavana Hari

Rap Journalist

Some albums are attached to the moment they were released, while others seem to grow into something different as time passes. Cleo Sol released her debut studio album Rose in the Dark on March 27, 2020, and it was produced by Inflow and released through Forever Living Originals. Though it was released during a year filled with uncertainty, isolation, and chaos, the 11-track album still delivered a clear message surrounding patience, spirituality, self-love, and growth, which still feels relevant to this day. Throughout Rose in the Dark, Sol never acts like overcoming hardship is simple; instead, she tends to find comfort in accepting that darkness and uncertainty are sometimes part of becoming who you are meant to be.  Fitting for the year that it was released, this message especially stands out to me through three of my favorite tracks on the album, which are “Rewind,” “Butterfly,” and “Her Light.”

Rewind

Rewind looks backward before the album could move forward. Sol tends to remember a period when she felt alone and lost. She describes sleepless nights crying and even the reality of looking at a bank account that unfortunately had reached zero. These details make her eventual optimism feel earned rather than forced; she isn’t speaking about struggle from a distance; she remembers exactly what it felt like to be inside of it. The song itself is very groovy, and she’s singing about it almost like she’s skipping on the side of the sidewalk and just feeling nostalgic about how far she’s come in life. This also shows how much it took for her to get to the state of mind where she can sing about such a dark time in her life in such an optimistic tone and manner. Toward the end, Sol sings “I prayed for change / somehow it came.” The change she wanted eventually arrived, but the song doesn’t end with her wishing she could erase everything that happened. Instead, she recognizes the lessons and blessings that came afterwards because she emphasizes how important it is to learn to become your current self. That’s what makes the repeated phrase, “don’t press rewind,” so meaningful to me. Sol isn’t telling listeners to forget their past; she’s saying that constantly returning to it can prevent you from recognizing how far you’ve already come. The past helps create the person standing in the present, but that doesn’t mean you have to continue living there.

Butterfly

While Rewind reflects on surviving something that has already happened, “Butterfly” captures what it feels like when you’re trying to find your way through it. Sol sings, “Butterfly lost in the night / running out of faith,” creating one of the most important images on the album. Butterflies are typically associated with transformation and freedom, but Sol’s butterfly unfortunately isn’t flying peacefully in the sunlight.  It’s still lost in the darkness, and it’s beginning to lose hope; however, its wings are still bright. The song is very raw, with only a guitar strumming in the background, and her voice is very clear in the message that she’s trying to portray, which is that you can be lost in the darkness and be about to lose hope, but you need to keep going regardless to get out of it. 

That contrast changes the meaning of the song. The butterfly may not be able to see where it’s going, but the qualities it needs to survive haven’t disappeared. Sol reinforces this idea when she reminds the listener that their “peace lives within,” and there is no promise that somebody else will eventually arrive and fix everything. She encourages the person to recognize the strength that has already existed inside of them. She also references spirituality in the song as she discusses God, prayer, and faith while warning against becoming consumed by the outside world.  However, she is not preaching religion or faith; she is just referencing her own personal beliefs and what she turns to during her darkest moments. She also discusses how comparisons can make somebody else’s life appear so important that you forget to appreciate your own progress. The song later turns to forgiveness and for the listener to release people who focused on their flaws, broke their heart, or simply decided to leave the butterfly. Therefore, this represents more than surviving; it represents accepting transformation, even if the transformation means leaving prior experiences of the old self behind.

Her Light

The idea reaches its conclusion on the album’s final track, “Her Light.” Sol asks, “How do you run before learning how to walk?” It’s a simple question. Still, it summarizes what Rose in the Dark has spent its time exploring: growth can’t be rushed. You can’t expect yourself to know how to run before allowing yourself to stumble. Through learning how to walk, the following question goes even deeper: how can someone have faith before taking the fall? Faith requires believing in something before knowing exactly how it will end; it makes us human. Sol isn’t promising that taking the fall won’t hurt; instead, she suggests that falling might be a part of developing the faith that is needed to instill hope again. Then she connects faith back to imagery that appears throughout her album, which is without the light: “Sun couldn’t show you / her light.” The “night” in her light reminds me of the butterfly earlier in the album; neither image creates permanent darkness. Without night, Sol argues there would be no contrast allowing us to recognize light. Even the album’s title begins to feel different through this idea.  Rose in the Dark shouldn’t necessarily be viewed as a rose waiting for darkness to end; it can also be something beautiful continuing to grow despite where it has been planted, kind of like a flower growing on the moon.

Six Years Later

Six years after its release, Rose in the Dark still feels like an album made for moments when life becomes hard. Cleo Sol never tells a listener that growth is easy, or that finding peace means never struggling again. Instead, she shows that healing can mean accepting what happened, trusting yourself when you feel lost, and having faith in what you cannot see. Through “Rewind,” “Butterfly,” and “Her Light,” Sol reminds us that our darkest moments do not erase the progress we have already made. If anything, they can make us recognize our own strengths more clearly. Rose in the Dark is comforting because it doesn’t ask us to wait until everything is perfect to grow; sometimes, like a rose in the dark, you are already growing before you can even see it.