Ashley Monroe Rosegold

The world looks a little different through rose gold sunglasses. At least, that's what Ashley Monroe has found.

"Everything's a bit more magical when I put them on," she says, "a bit more miraculous. It's a beautiful way to go through life."

It makes sense, then, that Monroe's spectacular new album, Rosegold, is her most joyous, blissed out collection yet. Written and recorded over the past two years, the record finds the GRAMMY nominated Nashville star pushing her sound in bold new directions, drawing on everything from Kanye West and Kid Cudi to Beck and The Beach Boys as she layers lush vocal harmonies atop dreamy, synthesized soundscapes and sensual, intoxicating beats. Monroe worked with a variety of producers on the album, letting the tracks dictate her direction rather than any arbitrary adherence to genre or tradition, and the result is a record as daring as it is rewarding, an ecstatic, revelatory meditation on happiness and gratitude that tosses expectation to the wind as it celebrates our endless capacity to love, and to be loved, even in the midst of chaos and tragedy.

"I've always been good at writing sad songs because I've experienced a lot of sadness in my life," Monroe reflects. "When my son was born, though, it was like some sort of innocence got plugged back into my heart. I'd never really felt that kind of joy before, and I wanted to find a way to make it last."

Born in Knoxville, TN, Monroe first began turning heads in Nashville as a teenager, when she arrived in town with a notebook full of mature, emotionally sophisticated songs that belied her young age. A jack-of-all-trades, she picked up work behind the scenes at first, singing on sessions at Jack White's Third Man Studios and penning tunes that would appear on albums by the likes of Guy Clark, Carrie Underwood, Jason Aldean, and Miranda Lambert. Monroe and Lambert forged a close personal bond through their collaborations, and in 2011, they teamed up with fellow Nashville journeywoman Angaleena Presley to launch the critically acclaimed trio Pistol Annies, which would go on to top the Country Album charts, crack the Top 5 on the Billboard 200, and earn a GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album. Monroe's solo output was equally lauded, with NPR hailing her work as "subtle and breathtaking" and Rolling Stone praising her writing as "riveting [and] sharp-witted," and over the course of three studio albums, she would land her own GRAMMY nomination for Best Country Album, share bills with the likes of Vince Gill and John Prine, and perform everywhere from The Tonight Show and Conan to Late Night and The View.

While Monroe's catalog earned her a reputation as a reliable traditionalist with a penchant for bittersweet songs of heartbreak and loss, when it came time to begin work on Rosegold, she decided to pull a complete 180, both sonically and emotionally.

"I told everyone I was working with that I didn't want even a hint of sadness this time around," says Monroe. "I wanted to embrace all the light and love in my life and find ways to share it with people." Working primarily out of her closet"the only quiet place in a house with a three-year-old boy" Monroe turned herself into a vessel for that light and love, inviting melodies and lyrics to flow through her freely. Some days, she found transcendence in the mundane; other days"like the morning a massive swarm of honeybees enveloped her front yard"she felt as if she were being visited by some higher power.

"I'd hear these melodies in my head that sounded like choirs of angels singing," says Monroe. "I just felt this compulsion to share them with the world so that other people could experience the same joy and get lost in these heavenly noises."

Rather than make demos of the new material, Monroe began recording Rosegold a-song-at-a-time, bringing ideas into writing sessions and inviting her collaborators"Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swift, Lady A), Mikey Reaves (Maren Morris, Needtobreathe), Jake Mitchell (Ashley McBryde, Luke Bryan), Jordan Reynolds (Maddie & Tae, Dan + Shay), Ben West (Maddie & Tae, Lady A), and longtime producer/co-writer Tyler Cain (who co-wrote "Has Anybody Ever Told You" with her)"to help build and produce full tracks right then and there. The approach yielded vibrant, spontaneous performances that embraced Monroe's off-kilter instincts and played to the different strengths of each producer, and while that meant that no two songs ever came together in quite the same way, the record still manages to feel remarkably cohesive, thanks in no small part to the work of engineer Gena Johnson (John Prine, Jason Isbell), who worked with Monroe to mix and add and mix some more until everything was just right.

"Every move we made was instinctive," says Monroe, "but it was also intentional. I found myself wanting to see how drastic the change from a verse to a chorus could be, or looking for places where the beat could drop out and then give you chills when it comes back in."

The chills arrive early on Rosegold, which opens with the hypnotic "Siren." Breathy and seductive, the track blurs the lines between the human and the digital as it beckons you into a world all its own, one fueled by neo-noir guitar and simmering desire. Monroe doesn't shy away from her sexuality here, embracing it as a building block of joy and pleasure and love as fundamental as any other. "We've got the kind that just goes on and on and on and on and on," she trails off, leaving the rest up to the imagination. Monroe's fascination with love on the album stems not just from how good it feels, though, but from how many different ways it can be felt. There's romantic love on the tender "Flying" and addictive "Gold;" physical love on the yearning "Groove" and lusty "Drive;" familial love on the airy "Silk;" and even self-love on "The New Me," an uplifting ode to fresh starts that feels particularly apt given Monroe's personal transformation.

"I'll put these songs on in the car now and start to cry because it reminds to see the good in the world, to choose love over fear" says Monroe. "Since the birth of my son, I just feel this overwhelming love washing over me from all directions like a wave."

Monroe embraced the wave visually, as well as sonically, dying her hair rose gold, getting a rose filled tattoo, and, yes, wearing those rose gold sunglasses. The past year has been a difficult one, to say the least, but even in our darkest moments, there's a beautiful, magical, powerful light to be seen and felt. Take a listen to Rosegold and see if the world doesn't feel just a little more magical to you, too.