“An energetic examination of loss and adversity, or more specifically how to survive and thrive in the face of them.” That’s how we described ‘Moves’, the first single from roman around‘s new album The Toll of Unconditional Love on Trailing Twelve Records. Drawing on pivotal moments from their youth, Fresno, CA’s Roman Rivera used the track not only to explore ideas of support and abandonment, but to establish the themes as those which would come to form the heart of the new record.
“The Toll of Unconditional Love is deeply inspired by my personal experiences, particularly the complex emotions surrounding relationships that have been marked by absence and abandonment,” as Rivera explains. “In this album, I delve into the emotional weight of maintaining unwavering love despite facing personal struggles and the challenges that come with it.” This process represents a continuation of the intent at the centre of the roman around project, which has long served as a way of enabling those who felt excluded from music—especially those in LGBTQ+ communities and POC—to have a safe space in which to create and communicate.
Latest single and opening track ‘Get It From You’ is the perfect introduction, a song about heritage and inherited traits that begins slow and considered but grows into an understated epic. The first section is a masterclass in building atmosphere, wrapping Rivera’s vocals in a blanket of gauzy and emotional pop, before subtle percussion heralds the arrival of raw electric guitar and a long wailing passage of blown-out saxophone. The result is something that wouldn’t feel out of place on the fantastic soundtrack to Jane Schoenbrun’s feature I Saw the TV Glow and serves as the ideal mission statement for the record as a whole.
The Toll of Unconditional Love is out now via Trailing Twelve Records.