{"id":27876,"date":"2024-07-30T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T09:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=27876"},"modified":"2024-07-31T10:01:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T14:01:18","slug":"album-review-rome-56-paradise-is-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/30\/album-review-rome-56-paradise-is-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Rome 56 &#8211; Paradise is Free"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-27877\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/rome_56.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/rome_56.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/rome_56-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/rome_56-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Heartland twang, creamy vocal harmonies, shimmering powerpop jangle and Byrdsy\/Petty-ish Southern lilt: all of those winning qualities make themselves known with the first minute of \u201cThe Man Behind the Man With the Gun,\u201d the opening cut on <i>Paradise is Free<\/i> from Rome 56. If the Paisley Underground musical movement had taken root in 2024 instead of the 1980s, it might\u2019ve sounded like this. Hints of Long Ryders and Old 97s are there, but (for the first few tracks, anyway) Rome 56 doesn\u2019t lean so heavily into the twang as to deter listeners (like myself) who prefer a limited drawl to their music.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHustle of the Crowd\u201d mines similar territory; it\u2019s an understated piece that suggests what Tom Petty might have sounded like if is backing band featured Sid Griffin and Tom Stevens instead of Mike Campbell and his pals. \u201cFire in the Sky\u201d mixes up the rhythm, adding texture and breadth to the group&#8217;s character. \u201cSeattle\u201d applies a country blues character to a T.Rex-y melody, but the bridge opens things up a bit. \u201cAt the End of the Street\u201d has a sonorous, cavernous guitar sound and a more traditional forlorn c&amp;w character with a vocal that hints at <i>Nashville Skyline<\/i>-era Dylan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cParadise is Free\u201d might be the title track, but it feels flown in from a different session. A clattering rhythm makes the tune hard to pin down stylistically. \u201cInvisible Man\u201d is a breezy country rocker with some fetching backing vocals. The spare \u201cA Simple Way to Go\u201d is a nice enough tune that could benefit from a stronger hook; the Tex-Mex combo organ flourishes are tasty, though.<\/p>\n<p>That organ bit aside, there\u2019s not a lot of prominent keyboard work on <i>Paradise is Free<\/i>. But \u201cSome Say\u201d makes up for that: this piano ballad with strings is a pretty, plaintive tune. \u201cThe Midnight Sun\u201d combines drum machine percussion with pedal steel; the juxtaposition is interesting, at least, if overall a bit too twang-heavy for this listener. Far better is \u201cDry Ice,\u201d with an appealing arrangement, earnest vocals and some shimmering guitar. But the energy flags for the closer, the lachrymose \u201cGive Myself Up to You.\u201d It might vaguely remind some listeners of Dylan\u2019s \u201cKnockin\u2019 on Heaven\u2019s Door.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Country-oriented listeners might or might not appreciate the rock-leaning numbers; rockers might be put off by the c&amp;w character. But those who find their sweet spot in the space between those poles should definitely give Rome 56\u2019s latest a spin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heartland twang, creamy vocal harmonies, shimmering powerpop jangle and Byrdsy\/Petty-ish Southern lilt: all of those winning qualities make themselves known with the first minute of \u201cThe Man Behind the Man [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27877,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,20,49,62,65],"tags":[5466],"class_list":["post-27876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alt-country","category-country","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-rome-56","cat-4-id","cat-20-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27876"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27879,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27876\/revisions\/27879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}