No Rome - Crying in the Prettiest Places


No Rome
Crying in the Prettiest Places
2019
Spotify

No Rome, the Matt Healy of the 1975 protégé, has been quietly making angsty teen music while not truly breaking through to the mainstream. Besides a feature on a the 1975 track and some touring with the band, The world has widely missed on No Rome. It is a shame because He is able to find a sound, similar to the 1975, that feels supremely of the moment. Hypebeast sadboi tunes to say the least. That might sound like a diss, but the more Emo of yore comes into fashion and the world gets comfortable with it sliding into their pop the more ahead of the game No Rome seems. His music slips between R&B, electronic, emo and rock effortlessly shirking any kind of energy towards conforming to one genre or another. The music on Crying in the Prettiest Places is nice, but not altogether that exciting. His first record seemed to have this frantic energy and sense of creating something new, but this record feels like more of the same. "Pink" for example is just another 90s inspired R&B track that lacks any kind of depth or any real point outside of a vaguely explicit love song. "Rimbaud, Come and Sit For Awhile" masqueredes as this self important modern take on drug fueled love, but it ends up sounding clunky and disjointed. It feels like an intro the 1975 would write, but then it would spin off into something far more interesting.

That is sort of the point we land with this record. At first No Rome felt like an extension of the 1975, something built with a similar mindset as a supplement to their music. Now however He just feels like He is chasing their sound and their vibe. Imitation rather than inspiration. "All Up in My Head" is such a confused track that it never finds any footing and just sounds like a bunch of random ass musings from someone who thinks they have all the answers. There are times where No Rome finds a nice sound but He never capitalizes on it fully. The album just ends up being sonically OK and lyrically pretty boring. It just never feels like anything substantial or significant. No Rome has talent, and an ability to connect with the youth in a real way, this album just ain't the thing.

5.0 out of 10

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