Album Review: Romantica 'Shadowlands'

-Tara

Hailing from Minnesota, Romantica 's fourth album, and first new release in seven years, Shadowlands, is a lovingly crafted, ambient collection of fourteen tracks that offer encouragement particularly when situations may seem dispiriting. The heartfelt “Let The Light Go Through You” opens the record engulfing the listener with its sweeping melody and uplifting lyrics, and segues beautifully into the reassuring “Harder To Hear” and the emotional “Give Your Heart A Shelter” where front man Ben Kyle sings, “All of this life is a gift that were living/All of this love is given to you.”

From there, things liven things up with the jaunty, keys-accented tribute to Gram Parsons “Cecil Ingram Conor,” touch on the loneliness of the road in the roots-based “Lonely Star,” and search for hope “After The War”

Shadowlands also includes the dreamlike “We Were Young” which reminisces about a lost love, “Blue Heart” a shuffler about wanting to heal a hurt heart, and the tug-at-the-heartstrings “Get Back in Love” which reminds us  just how easy it can be to reconnect with someone, before closing it all out with the irresistible “Shandy Bass.”
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Combining vivid, introspective songwriting with lush and memorable melodies, Shadowlands  reflects on life’s ups and downs, reminding one that even the darker times can (and should) teach us about ourselves, make us better, and ultimately, give us hope. 

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