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How long will it take for the indie band from Minneapolis,  Romantica, to gain some national attention for their music? I asked that question of myself after hearing their newest album, America. It is the second album that they have released, and it is a giant step forward from their previous album. After sounding a bit too much like the Wallflowers or the Jayhawks they have pushed forward with their own sound. 

It is flavored with the Americana sound, and it will remind you of many great musicians. Americana is hard to define because it is a mix of musical genres such as alt-country, folk, blues and other styles. You will hear on this album the influences of Springsteen, Johnny Cash, and the '70’s band America. Romantica dances around various these styles of music mixing them superbly for a unique and interesting sound. One moment a toe tapping song and the next song will be a contemplative ballad. But, each song is well crafted with poetical lyrics that cause the listener to think and introspect the meaning. 

One of the first songs to pop out at you is the song, "The National Side." It is an odd mix of Johnny Cash styled guitar strumming away and a Mexican sounding horn section. It is an interesting mix of genre’s that encourages you up off your feet. The song is an upbeat and humorous song about his family moving to the USA. Ben Kyle, expressing the difficulties for some of them in the transition. Throw in a nifty twang of a guitar and Zydeco styled accordion that keeps the rhythm train like pumping throughout the tune, you find a real masterpiece on the album. Towards the end of the song you will find yourself singing along, it’s just a fun tune. 

Then the tenor of the album starkly changes to a picked guitar ballad, "Drink the Night Away."  It is a delicate and lovely tune that emanates a sorrowful tune. It is one of the songs that has a Spiritual side that talks about the source of salvation. Or is it just a song about drinking? That is the clever type of writing you find on the album, ones that cause you to consider what they are singing like good poetry. 

At other times on the album you have love songs, like the radio friendly, "I Need You Tonight." Relationships are a common them in their music, usually in reference to a woman they love. The album has a pop country kind of a feel to it, with harmonica and jazz like melody on guitar. 

The song, "God Walks On Water," is an interesting tune that pulls out many emotions. It talks about hardships of life and who has been there with us. It is a song that sounds like driving on a country road in the fall. It moves along with a slow strum on guitar, and a country whine on violin. There is a kind of sad emotion that comes out. The answer to the feelings comes in the last verse of the song, 

God walks on water, 
I walk through the rain, 
One day were gonna walk together
When He comes back again. 

I believe this is one of the strongest albums I have listened to this year. It is worth your time to check out and give it a listen. The album deserves some serious attention as a work of musical art.  

By Robert W. Blake

America
Artist: Romantica
Label: Indie

An album called America with a host of references to “Belfast” and “Donegal” gives a clue to the background of singer and songwriter Ben Kyle. Brought up in Northern Ireland until his late teens he then moved to Minneapolis where he formed Romantica. America is their second album and it is a beauty. Think Over The Rhine with a male vocal or Ryan Adams with a poppier voice. The songs had my ears and soul pricking up at regular intervals with instrumental flourishes, some from ex Wilco and Jayhawks girl Jessy Green, and lyrical twists and turns that are clever yet never over indulgent. 

"National Side" is intoxicatedly infectious, pure unadulterated catchiness with great lyrics, laced with humor and a family’s past and future. The only slight problem might be the references to FA Cup and rhyming Gary Linekar with Salt and Vinegar might not be so easily understood in America’s midwest but he does get to pop reference David Beckham before he sets America on fire with "LA Galaxy." There is a retrospective thread to the entire album with memories of life in Belfast or family holidays to the Gulf Of Mexico. Fiona, another radio friendly hit if there ever was one, takes a bleak look at Belfast. Listening to it in the post Adams and Paisley photo op that brings a bright future ever more probably, makes it sound like a bygone age, where bombs were exploding, policeman were frightened and Belfast was going nowhere. In painting the grimness of Belfast’s past it somehow brings out the joy of where it actually has gone.

There’s a sense too that Kyle has taken Sufjan Stevens’ contribution to rock on board. The brass on "National Side" shows it in the arrangements but where so many seem to think that you have to be over clever and complicated in the post Sufjan days. Kyle moves more in the slip stream of his story telling and the spirit of capturing places and people. Kyle seems smart enough to know what to be influenced by and what to avoid trying to copy. 

Another similarity of Stevens is Romantic’s ability to talk spiritual without pontificating dogma. "Drink the Night Awa"y is the most played song on my Ipod and seems to be about the reckless tragedy of teenage drinking exploits until theological questions are asked of Jesus. In the subtlest and soul song stopping twist Jesus appears in the last scene to raise the cup and “drink the night away.” The fragile "God Walks On the Water" is one for quiet reflection at any time of doubt or struggle. It is as honest and accurate a lesson in pilgrimage as you will hear in many a long year: “God walks on the water/I walk through the rain/One day we’ll walk together/When he comes back again.” 

Everything about the album is seemingly so effortless. I predict Album of the Year already!

Steve Stockman

Steve Stockman is the Presbyterian Chaplain at Queens University, Belfast, Ireland, where he lives in community with 88 students. He has written two books Walk On; The Spiritual Journey of U2 which he is currently updating and The Rock Cries Out; Discovering Eternal Truth in Unlikely Music. He dabbles in poetry and songwriting and he has a weekly radio show on BBC Radio Ulster (listen anytime of day or night @ www.bbc.co.uk/ni/religion/rhythmandsoul). He has his own web page--Rhythms of Redemption at http://stocki.ni.org . He also tries to spend some time with his wife Janice and daughters Caitlin and Jasmine.