Roja - Promises I Should Have Kept

by Maarten Schiethart

published: 17 / 12 / 2013

Label: Probe Plus
Format: CD

Baffling and quirky but riveting debut album from Roja, the new band of Liverpudlian singer-songwriter and one-time Marlowe and Testcard front msn, Roja

Review

After Marlowe and Testcard, Roja is Simon Bradshaw's new band.It finds him reunited with many of his old chums, and again, just as Marlowe's indie folk pop jumped into Testcard's synth-pop, Roja is another drastic change in style. Quasi mariachi arrangements now accompany Bradshaw's contemplative redemption and romanticism. The prominent and euphonic trumpet, Bradshaw's vocals and crooning plus the rocking waltzes have a theatrical effect, in combination with his tales of political evil which find him lowering his voice. His black humour too works very well in this context, such as on the sarcastic 'Some Moments of Silence' which features an accordionist inviting you to a little dance. The fetish reference in 'Heart Attack' is set to music of ironic innocence, which leads to further hilarity. Bradshaw claims he got married to write the song entitled 'I'm Your Lover, Not Your Man', but he obviously prefers exaggeration. 'The Evil Stands High' opens the album and makes an obvious choice for a single release and airplay. Monumental and epic, like Wah Heat's 'Seven Minutes To Midnight' was, it gives a personal take on politics in a rumbling cabaretesque style. Like a private dick in a ditch, Bradshaw narrates 'Don't Leave Me Here to Die' as if in a film noir where someone by accident mixed in a Mexican cover version of a Tamla Motown song to the soundtrack. Perhaps even more appropriate on radio would be 'Yeah I Could' with its rolling rhymes and riffs. Produced by Geoff Davies, the album is characterised with a direct approach in sound that seems set to slowly disappear, in favour of today's digital drivel where instruments get an equal share of the volume. Saving the best to the last, 'The End' suddenly culminates in a truly excellent song that does away with the jokey side to the album, drags in a snappy and upbeat but also rather minimal folk-pop structure and it makes you anxious to know where Roja head next.

Track Listing:-

1 The Evil Stands High
2 Don't Leave Me Here to Die
3 This Old Flame
4 Oh L'amour (Part 1)
5 Yeah I Could
6 Some Moments of Silence
7 Heart Attack
8 Nestle
9 I'm Your Lover Not Your Man
10 The End
11 Oh L'amour (Part 2)