Album Review: Romans - Black Ties EP

Birmingham-based Romans new EP ‘Black Ties’ is a varied little beast. Opening number ‘Something Biblical’ aims to be a bombastic rock and roller complete with a riffy intro and fret-caressing noodles over the choruses, but to be honest the verse vocals sit a little awkwardly and it lacks the necessary guts to really carry off bombast, coming up a little weak. Just when you’ve pegged them as nearly-men however, up comes second track ‘Coffee’, different enough that it could be the work of another band entirely.

A gang vocal kick-off makes way to a more slickly-produced, modern rock sound, and the sung melodies with their liberal sprinkling of falsetto and well-judged harmonies are compelling. It’s catchy and has a momentum that really drives the track along as the highlight of the record. ‘Barriers’ is again a departure from the previous, although this time a somewhat more natural one with the lead vocal taking a rather Dallas Green-esque turn over a more melancholic, considered instrumental.

The rather pun-tastic ‘Rome, Sweet Rome’ continues the rather Jekyll & Hyde theme, again changing things up and heading back to the less effective hard-rockin’ them of the first track, before short acoustic-screamo number 'Drown' rounds off the reverb-drenched proceedings.

Considering that it’s still early days, they may well yet settle into a signature sound; if Romans can make up their mind about quite what sort of songs they want to write then they might be quite the proposition. I’m all for variety, but the strands need to work together and not pull in opposite directions, which is what I feel 'Black Ties' chief failing is. There are some good moments here, but it’s not consistent enough.

3/5

'Black Ties' EP by Romans is out now on Pornography for Cowards.

Romans on Soundcloud, MySpace, and Facebook.

Nick Worpole