It’s been three months since R&B shoegaze artist No Rome aka Rome Gomez left Manila for London to record his unnamed forthcoming album, and we didn’t hear much about it until last week when Matty Healy of The 1975 tweeted the cryptic tweet below.
In which Rome replied:
And naturally, the Internet went wild, and so did we.
Since then, the tweets have kept on coming, but still no definite details about his album—the album he’s been working on for two years and said last January that it would be out in early 2017—so we did our our own digging. Here’s our findings.
It’s his first album
Known more for his digital outputs on SoundCloud like “Seventeen”, “flowers on my neck/breaking” and “think of me ft. UNIT,” his upcoming LP is going to be his first. He’s released two EPs so far: Fantasy (2013) and Hurry Home & Rest (2015) under Young Liquid Gang and Numberline Records respectively, but not yet a full-length album.
It will have 15 tracks
Before Rome flew out to London in March to re-record and re-master his songs for the album, he revealed to us that his album will have 15 tracks in total. He didn’t say if he’ll be including already released songs, but from our end we’re anticipating never released 15 fresh new tracks.
It’s inspired by the imagery of roadtrips
As he told us last January, “The whole thing is a car ride. It’s a road trip that starts from sunset to sunrise.” With songs made “for when you watch the sunset,” “perfect for midnight,” “for [when you’re excited for the night,” “for when you’re thinking at 3am, and “for when you can’t think because you’re drunk”, he envisions the album experience to be like an endless car ride.
It’s a pop album
The songs in the album draw influences from different genres that he’s been experimenting with like soul, gospel and rap, but it will be a “pop” album, or better yet the term he used at his despedida back in March a “pop canvas.” Although dubbed “pop” it will be the kind of genre-bending pop that hasn’t been heard of before.
It will include collaborations
Matty Healy frontman of the 1975 has been dropping hints here and there with tweets, Facebook posts and this video that suggest that Rome and him have been working together, and we’re putting our bets on it. The album is going to be packed with collaborations, and one collaborator we’re anticipating other than Matty, is two-time collaborator bearface. from all American Boy Band BROCKHAMPTON who’s recently released their latest album Saturation, with a song produced by Rome himself titled “Waste.”
It will be released under the same label as the 1975
We’ve been tracking Rome’s tweets recently and he’s been tweeting Jamie Oborne, owner of London-based record label Dirty Hit. If you don’t know of Dirty Hit, it’s the record label that’s home of artists like the 1975, Wolf Alice and The Japanese House. We put two and two and we’re going to say that Dirty Hit is the unrevealed record label that’s releasing his album. And well, there’s also this photo.
Photo by JP Talapian