Austin’s NEW ROMAN TIMES continues the American love affair with British guitar pop on its debut album On the Sleeve. Guitars that clang, jangle and shimmer ride propulsive bullet train rhythms, while singers DANIEL OWENS (the tense one) and JOSIE FLURI (the blissful one) cut through the din. It sounds simple enough; indeed, it sounds a lot like what many indie rocks are doing these days. But NRT stands out from the pack by virtue of exceptional songwriting and the guitar wizardry of Owens and HARRIS THURMOND (a veteran of HAMMERBOX, ORBITER, KINGSLEY and others). The urgency of “VCR,” “Secrets and Lies” and “21st Century Limited” blows past any claims of trend-jumping or derivativeness, catching the baton passed on by the psychedelic new wavers across the ocean.
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