ROAM – Great Heights & Nosedives (Album Review)

Posted on October 12, 2017 by georgiamoloney

ROAM – Great Heights & Nosedives
Released: October 13th, 2017

ROAM online Facebook
Twitter
Website

Formed in England in 2012, ROAM have spent the last few years steadily climbing to the top of the pop-punk pile. Their debut album ‘Backbone‘ released in 2016 through Hopeless Records saw them travelling the world for the last year and a half. Now comes their latest release Great Heights & Nosedives, aka the dreaded second album that can make or break a band.

It’s time now to embark on a listening journey as I try to determine….

First cab off the rank is ‘Alive‘, whose lyrics are the namesake of the album. In all honesty, any song that has tambourines within the first 10 seconds is a yes from me, and this one in particular gave me high hopes for the rest of the record – I fuck with this song HARD. Following on are ‘Left For Dead’ and ‘The Rich Life Of A Poor Man’, two pretty standard pop punk songs that didn’t feel particularly interesting, but I’m sure will resonate with others/grow on me with time. Then however, we hit ‘Playing Fiction’. Released as the first single, it was the perfect way to announce the album. I’ve had this track on repeat for weeks and that chorus has been been stuck in my head for just as long. Banger.

‘Guilty Melody’ comes straight after, which is my least favourite off the release; just wasn’t my cup of tea. Track 6 however…. IT’S A BLOODY BANGER!!!! ‘Open Water’ is exactly the sort of anthem I live for on an album. I thought Playing Fiction might have been that tune for this record, but Open Water blew me away from the first listen. I will be jamming this HARD for the next millennium. The opening part of next track ‘Curtain Call’ indicated it would be a slow song (ugh), but the powerful chorus pleasantly surprised me with its more aggressive vocals and instrumentals – still potentially my least favourite off the record though.

‘Scatterbrained’ is a song I’m definitely not partial to; still decent, and most definitely redeemed by its catchy chorus, but not something I’ll be rushing to add to playlists anytime soon. The last two songs have left me in a bit of a lull, but then another bloody banger emerges in the form of 9th track ‘Flatline’. The chorus makes me want to fly-kick posers in the pit, and it will definitely make an appearance in my “EMO HITLIST” playlist alongside Open Water. Bloody good form boys.

Classic whiney pop-punk vocals (sorry Costello) ring out in the opening bars of ‘While The World Keeps Spinning’, another pretty standard genre-friendly tune; it’s not a bad thing though – I found the song palatable and enjoyable, and it definitely compliments the rest of the album. Closing out the record is ‘Home’; the sweeping gang-vocals present throughout the song give it a wholesome and nostalgic feel, both characteristics that you definitely need for a closing track that will leave listeners feeling stoked to have listened through.

I definitely think this album is going to grow on me; the fast-paced songs will keep pulling me back in, and I’ll become more and more fond of the other songs I wasn’t initially drawn to. Overall I think this record is really great; it’s cohesive without being repetitive, super fun, really well written and much to my pleasure, didn’t include any of those god-forsaken token acoustic slow songs.

ROAM – Great Heights & Nosedives tracklisting

1. Alive
2. Left For Dead
3. The Rich Life Of A Poor Man
4. Playing Fiction
5. Guilty Melody
6. Open Water
7. Curtain Call
8. Scatterbrained
9. Flatline
10. While The World Keeps Spinning
11. Home

Rating: I’m giving it a 7.5/10, and concluding that it is in fact, a banger.
Great Heights & Nosedives is Our Now via Hopeless Records. Get a copy here
Review by Georgia Moloney

ROAM are also touring Australia in Jan/Feb 2018 in support of Knuckle Puck!