I’m not saying that Euplasia is setting new benchmarks for pop-rock, for want of a better word. That he seems to take his lead from a time, sometime perhaps pre-2000’s, where the infectiousness of pop music and the drive of rock made for easier sonic bedfellows than they do today. Or that there is already something beating at the heart of the song that sounds classic, echoing something you feel like you have been listening to half your life.
Actually, I am saying that! Yes, all of that.
If you hanker for those heady days where bands like The Icicle Works, The Church or The Alarm blurred the lines between pop and a hard place, “Romeo Ohio” sits at the cheerier, chirpier end of that sound, perhaps after it has been run through a Britpop filter to some degree.
Immediate melodies carry infectious guitar lines; the energy never dips. An intricate song dynamic is well and good, but sometimes all you need is a tune that starts in the stratosphere and doesn’t feel the need to reduce its altitude that much. Even the slightly lower flying middle eight is pretty incendiary. It’s full on, fun, and fantastic.
And the message the song carries is pretty pertinent, too… a reminder that if you are going to raise your head above the parapet, you’d better have something to back up your lofty position; style over substance doesn’t cut it, not in the long run.
Not that Euplasia has anything to worry about on that score.
