Ascetic
2005
The Great Dying
About This Album
The debut long-player by Roma 79 is workmanlike mainstream alterna-rock, somewhere between the Foo Fighters' likably regular-guy riff-rock, the emo-tinged urgency of Jimmy Eat World, and the ponderous mopery of early Radiohead. The album has a few major flaws, the most damaging by far being a tendency to take the songs well beyond their optimum length. The nine-and-a-half-minute "The Spin" would be far more effective at less than half that length, but with the exception of one brief instrumental linking track, there's not a single song on The Great Dying that wouldn't be vastly improved by the excision of 45 to 90 seconds of repetitive choruses or needless bridges. On the positive side, however, lead singer Jeremy Patfield has an expressive voice that largely dodges the pitfalls of the current crop of indie rock singers: no petulant whining that's supposed to pass for emotional depth, no pitch problems, no overt imitations of more famous singers. (Although in his high register, Patfield does sound a little like the guy from Keane.) Furthermore, with the excesses truncated, this would be a uniformly catchy batch of songs given varied and interesting arrangements. There's promise here, but at times it's a bit hard to locate. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
Track List (try tracks 1,2,4,5,8 and 9)

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