Rialto
Rialto
Sire
Take the pure Beatlesque melodies of Oasis, add the romanticism and oozing sexuality of Duran Duran, and stir it all up in the perpetual blue mood of the Smiths, and you get Rialto, Britain’s new kings of mope rock! With songs covering the gamut of the lonely and downtrodden, suffice it to say that if misery loves company, these guys will never be alone. Chiming guitars, retro keyboards, and two drummers fill out Rialto’s lush pop sound, where a lyrical common thread of dread and despair weaves its way through each tune, covering the whole in a blanket of romantic melancholy. “Monday Morning, 5:19” narrates the hour-by-hour mounting paranoia of a man whose obsessive fear that his girlfriend might be cheating tortures him to near madness. Twist and shout to “Broken Barbie Doll”’s chorus of “Sleeping pills and alcohol/ a night she’d rather not recall,” and bounce back from your most recent heartache to the soothing string accompaniment of “Quarantine” – this record’s “Eleanor Rigby.” Even the record’s most upbeat song, “Dream Another Dream,” redolent with “Na na na” harmonies and melodic sighs, posits that there’s “no need to get uptight” if your life is a downer, “Cause at the end of the day/ there’s gonna be more night/ You can dream another dream tonight.” Pass the tissues baby, it hurts so good. Sire Records, 936 Broadway, New York, NY 10010; http://www.sirerecords.com
