No Rome - Blueboy Must Die

No Rome’s vision of pop music sounds like a warped industrial daydream chewing scuzzy bubblegum - or rather, a happy-go-lucky cousin of The 1975 (a collaborator whose influence is consistently felt). Mixtape ‘Blueboy Must Die’ is no different – a follow-up of sorts to 2021 debut full-length ‘It’s All Smiles’ - it puts his pop machine into hyperdrive, chucking all kinds of material onto the conveyor belt. As ever, his acid-tab sound requires a few rotations to really settle into the trip, but its distorted ingredients are lush and exciting. There’s London grime on ‘Hackney Bounce’, infatuating, replayable pop on ‘180’, a massive, mournful ode to platonic love on ‘Brother’, while the lackadaisical ‘Elevator Music’ sounds perfect for a TikTok fit check video. On ‘Blueboy Must Die’, there’s a feeling that No Rome seeks to push his staple pop irreverence further, and although today his brand of ultra-modernism is a little less disruptive, his starry-eyed, newfangled shoegaze hits always feel determinedly fresh.