“Shoegaze R&B” master designing a new world of invention and unity” – NME
No Rome takes his music to new heights in this R&B album, It's All Smiles. Recorded in a small apartment in Manila after returning home during the pandemic, it's a coast-to-coast project between himself, producer BJ Burton, and The 1975's George Daniel. The album finds No Rome returning to his roots location wise and artistically.
In terms of production, the project coins the term 'Shoegaze R&B." This genre includes vocal lines filled with intense emotions expressed in R&B combined with textured production and instrumentation. Accompanying the release of the album is also a music video for the track, "Remember November" which was shot in Manila and directed by Paco Raterta.
His new single, "I Want U" helped formed the foundations of the album and received its first play from Apple Music 1 Host Zane Lowe. The track was organized in 2019, but stayed as a demo until No Rome picked it back up when he was staying in Manila. According to his team, the final version features some of his finest lyricism and includes a host of found sounds in the beat from DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing and other plunderphonics records.
“This ['I Want U'] is the first song me and BJ worked on – that’s when we knew we were gonna make this album together. I wanted to do the lyrics more like talking, storytelling almost, painting the picture of what was happening that moment thru lyrics.” - No Rome
Here is the track listing to No Rome's It's All Smiles:
Cover Photo Credit: No Rome Twitter
