Eastbourne pop punk quintet Roam have really been making waves. Since forming in 2012 they’ve played shows all over the world with some of the biggest names in the genre, including a recent stint as main to support to New Found Glory on their 20th anniversary tour both here in the UK and across the pond. They’re well and truly living the dream of every heartbroken teen who ever picked up a guitar, so how have they managed it?
The answer to that question is a mixed bag of positive and negative. There is no doubt whatsoever that ‘Great Heights & Nosedives’ is a great pop punk record. From the instant ‘Alive’ kicks in we’re greeted with thick, punchy guitars, bounding rhythms and excruciatingly memorable vocal hooks. Roam have absolutely nailed the art of the catchy chorus; ‘The Rich Life Of A Poor Man’ and ‘Flatline’ in particular will lodge themselves in your head and won’t leave without a fight. There actually isn’t a low point in quality across the record; points are undoubtedly deserved for consistency but unfortunately these are outweighed by the album’s predictability.
‘Great Heights & Nosedives’ speeds up and slows down in all the right places, but this isn’t necessarily a good thing. There is not a single moment on the record where it feels like the band have taken a risk, or done something that will catch people off guard. Instead they’ve created a solid but ultimately very safe album that doesn’t take the genre anywhere new or unexpected. There’s also the added criticism that, despite being from the south coast of England, the majority of the vocals are sung with an unmistakable American twang. Of course the majority of influential pop punk bands are from America but it’s definitely off-putting to hear these influences worn without much of an attempt at putting a British spin on them.
Your enjoyment of this record will ultimately come down to what you’re looking for from it. If you want a straight-up pop punk album that’s really fun and catchy and you don’t mind not being challenged then you could do a lot worse than ‘Great Heights & Nosedives’ which is, for what it is, a fantastic release. However, if you’re perhaps a little older and more jaded and you want to hear something that you haven’t already heard done countless times before then unfortunately this record is not for you.
LIAM KNOWLES