Delving straight in with this new album from The Burning Of Rome and I’m slapped about with a little thing called instrumentation. And by slapped about, I mean that the instrumentation isn’t what I was expecting. I mean, I’ve never heard anything by this band before so their new album ‘With Us’ is my first journey with the band and their musical offerings.
So, instrumentation. Opener ‘Ballad Of An Onion Sprout’ has tubular bells and a stylophone. Further inspection into the band and there’s a video for the song (located below this paragraph, of course) and I can see that it’s keys! Lovely and versatile keys that allow for plenty of timbres to throw into the mix. And to be fair to The Burning Of Rome, they do utilise this well.
I can’t deny that these songs are pretty damn catchy as well. Not super catchy in a pop or pop punk kind of way, but there’s certainly melodies flowing between the different instruments that are slowly engraving themselves onto my brain. Whether they’re on the untypical stylophone or on an electric guitar, or even just in the vocals, they’re there. If it’s sticking in your head then it’s just this little thing called good song writing. Embrace it.
Still, I find it all a little odd. Like I’ve said, these are well written songs and The Burning Of Rome certainly have a knack for writing these awesome melodies and hooks that fisherman would be all up for buying if I extend this metaphor into a fishing shop or something. However, it is odd.
There’s something peculiar that doesn’t feel too right. For example, fourth track ‘Norman Bates’ is plodding along quite well and then suddenly escalates into this humongous wall of noise and it’s all crashing around until it ends how it began, with this simple little hook. It’s a similar get up with ‘Wake Up Edamame’ that honestly reminds me of Torche. Yeah, Torche.
On the whole ‘With Us’ gleams with this song writing ability that The Burning Of Rome haven’t fully utilised. They’ve certainly got the knack, but it needs to be a bit more rounded off and I think things will look a bit better. Or maybe it’s just me. Maybe I don’t get it. Still, I did enjoy my journey. Take the journey yourself.
3/5
‘With Us’ by The Burning Of Rome is out now on Surfdog Records.
The Burning Of Rome links: Website|Facebook|Twitter
Words by Mikey Brown (@MikeyMiracle)
