Tambora

Tambora
Studio album by Romo
Released	January 21, 2021 (digital/streaming) January 29, 2021 (CD/LP)
Recorded	2020-21
Length	50:00
Language	English
Label	The Empire
Producer	Jenna Romo · Andre Cassenove
Romo chronology
Romo (II) (2020) Tambora (2021) Psi (2021)
Singles from Tambora
"No One Ever Gets What They Want" Released: February 19, 2021

Tambora is the sixth studio album by British musician Romo. It was released on January 21, 2021 following the surprise drops of two of the album's songs, which were never released as physical singles. Like Romo's previous album, Romo (II), Tambora was released with no advance publicity.

Romo named the album Tambora after the stratovolcano eruption that caused a global extreme weather event in 1816 known as the Year Without a Summer. The songs on Tambora deal with themes of anger and resentment, as well as the consequences of inaction when life situations and national and global affairs heightens those feelings of anger and resentment. Most of the lyrics were inspired by the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. It features guest appearances from American singer-songwriter Luke Ramada and Bulgarian producer and programmer Andre Cassenove, one-half of Indigo Peak.

Tambora was preceded by the surprise drops of "The Scorched Earth" on November 20, 2020 and "Lupus (Or, The Fall Of The World's Greatest Superpower)" on January 7, 2021. "No One Ever Gets What They Want" was announced as the album's first and only single, released February 19, 2021. The album, like its predecessor, received widespread acclaim from music critics. Most reviewers singled out "Screams From The Light Years" and the two collaborations with Luke Ramada, "No Summer" and "Lupus", as the album's best songs. The album became Romo's first to debut below the #1 spot entering at #2, but delivered Romo her highest first week sales to date with 121,709 copies sold, surpassing her previous high of 105,605 copies achieved by Romo (II) just five months earlier.

Background

Romo began writing the songs on Tambora shortly after Romo (II) was released because she felt like she had more to say about the state of British and American politics, the loneliness of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her legacy. She underwent a highly creative period during a lengthy exile from the spotlight that began after the rollout of the music video for her Romo (II) single "Madame Bullshit", which followed the single's glitch art-inspired visual campaign and had been highly appreciated by close friends. However, Romo was shocked and saddened when the video received a highly negative response upon its release, blaming the single's commercial disappointment despite one of her most aggressive promotional campaigns to date on the failure of the video. The mental and emotional toll of promoting the single and events that led up to it inspired the writing of "The Scorched Earth", the first song released from the album, and the closing song and lead single "No One Ever Gets What They Want". Romo released "The Scorched Earth" as a standalone song to streaming outlets just two and a half months after the release of Romo (II), but at the time she was unsure whether it would lead to a full length album. "The Scorched Earth" prompted widespread negative criticism toward Romo, which led to a backlash on the charts for "Madame Bullshit" (it plunged to #12 a week after peaking at #4), as well as grave concerns for her mental health; this led Romo to abruptly end the Romo (II) era, cancel a planned third single from the album, and retreat from social media.

During her period off the grid, Romo spent time reading about world history and was inspired by her research on the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, a stratovolcano on the northern coast of an Indonesian island, which killed an estimated 71,000 people. When the ash from the volcano reached the atmosphere, it caused a global cooling event that extended into the following year known as the Year Without a Summer, an event that caused major food shortages as farmers could not grow crops due to the persistent frost. When Romo re-read "The Scorched Earth" and an early version of "No One Ever Gets What They Want", she noticed the common themes of fire-related visuals, lonely and hopeless feelings, and the idea of Earth rebelling against its own creation that were apparent from her historical research, so she decided to build upon those themes on more multi-part song suites. She reached a breakthrough when Luke Ramada, her sole labelmate on her label The Empire, showed her lyrics he was working on for a new political album called Muted States that he intended to release following the inauguration of Joe Biden. Impressed with the lyrics, Romo asked if he wanted to work them into her album; as a result, Luke quietly scrapped the release of Muted States and worked the lyrics of several of the songs he was working on, with titles including "Ballad Of The Cowards", "Echo Chamber", "Magma" and "Waiting For The Coup", onto what would become "No Summer" and "Lupus". Romo has said she most valued Luke's input during the writing of "Lupus" because he educated her about many American political issues that she had not been aware of from following the UK press. Both Romo and Luke used "No Summer" to express feelings of the loneliness of the COVID-19 pandemic and she related her research on the Tambora eruption and the Year Without a Summer to current times in the lyrics. Their work on "No Summer" ultimately inspired Romo to name the album Tambora.

Romo originally intended for "No One Ever Gets What They Want" to be a solely poetic piece, as a musing on how fame makes villains out of the powerful and makes even relatively successful people like herself feel like she will never be truly happy with what she has. But after recognizing the album lacked the hooks that defined her most successful period, she decided to rework the song. She saw an opportunity to do so with the return of Indigo Peak, who released their first single since 2011, "Cocaine", at the start of 2021, deciding to reunite with Andre Cassenove for the first time since her 2009 album POPSTAR 2: Belle After Death, on which the pair co-produced two of the album's three singles, "TITS-FM!" and "Bathroom Entourage", as well as "Dirty Vinyl", co-written with and featuring Andre's brother Yannik Cassenove. Her sessions with Indigo Peak resulted in the addition of a fast paced, high energy electro beat during the track's most climactic moments, the song's part-screamed chorus and the "But one last thing, sir, before my next slap in the face" bridge.

Songs

"The Scorched Earth" was the first song released from the album, surprise dropped just two and a half months after Romo (II). Romo wrote the first part of the song out of frustration of the falling out with a friend over differences in political opinion, and the second part of the song out of feelings of anger and despondency over "Madame Bullshit", the second and final single from Romo (II), underperforming on the singles chart and its music video receiving a poor critical response.

"No Summer" was described as a sequel of sorts to "Pandora Kills", using the backdrop of the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 to tell a story of Earth rebelling against humanity for the excesses of modern times. The scene setting in the lyrics drew inspiration from Romo's experiences walking through deserted towns during the coronavirus pandemic.

"Tall Tales Of True Love", a three-part, 10-minute song, describes a narrator's frustration with failing to find a romantic partner and feeling isolated from friends who are in relationships. Like the first verse of "Turned Ugly", which explores similar themes, Romo drew from personal experience in the writing process.

"Screams From The Light Years" describes a narrator's feelings of gloom and anger over the injustices of the world that people go through, while acknowledging her privilege makes her numb and blind to the ordeals of others. The song contains a reference to King Crimson's 1969 song "21st Century Schizoid Man" in the line "Iron claw nudges the button for the napalm fire."

"Lupus (Or, The Fall Of The World's Greatest Superpower)" was the second song released from the album, issued January 6, 2021 hours after a coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol as the U.S. Senate convened to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election. It is also the longest song on the album, at 15 minutes long. Co-written with her sole labelmate Luke Ramada, it is a four-part, multi-genre epic Romo wrote as a criticism of U.S. Republican lawmakers who opposed more generous coronavirus stimulus checks to Americans struggling to support themselves during the pandemic and supported efforts to undermine Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. A press release from The Empire described the song as a spiritual successor to "Diamond Venom" from Romo (II), which also was a multi-part, multi-genre epic that dealt with political themes. It was originally titled "The Reincarnation Of Marie Antoinette", derived from how Romo compared Republicans' championing of causes that benefit the wealthy and scrutiny of lifelines to lower classes to the extravagance of the French monarchy in the time of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (who is referred to as "Antonia", her last name at birth, in the song's lyrics).

"No One Ever Gets What They Want", the album's closing track and lead single, was written as a reverse of "Madame Bullshit", which starts angry and ends melancholy, by including ballad-like verses and an angry, defiant hook. Romo wrote the song with the intention of including a song that "reminds people why they loved Romo in the first place."

The album features uncredited guest vocals from Luke Ramada on "No Summer", who co-wrote the song as well as "Lupus (Or...)", and Andre Cassenove of Indigo Peak co-produced "No One Ever Gets What They Want" with Romo, marking their first co-production since POPSTAR 2: Belle After Death in 2009.

Reception

Critical

Like Romo (II), Tambora was met with widespread critical acclaim following its surprise release. The album currently holds an 85/100 rating on Metacritic based on 9 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews.

The general consensus was that Tambora worked as a companion piece to Romo (II), but differed from its predecessor because of its more spontaneous nature, which brought greater raw emotion and urgency than was present on her previous albums.

"The Scorched Earth" was negatively received upon its surprise drop in November 2020, largely because of Romo's erratic disposition at the time and the perception that she was not grateful for her success up to that point despite "Madame Bullshit" underperforming, with others concerned for Romo's mental health. However, it received more positive reviews when reassessed within the context of the album, with many praising not only the depth of its lyrics but also the imagery contained within them. Romo has said "The Scorched Earth" picks up where "The Empire", the closing song on Romo (II), left off, going from the hopeful note of basking in the legacy of her art to seeing her legacy threatened.

The highest praise for the album went to Romo's collaborations, lauding the songwriting and vocal contributions of Luke Ramada on "No Summer" and "Lupus (Or...)", both considered among the album's best songs, for helping Romo expand her musical ground and lyrical depth even further. Romo's reunion with Indigo Peak on lead single "No One Ever Gets What They Want" also was praised, with NME describing it as "her most instant song since 'Schizo Pop'".

Of Romo's solo efforts on the album, "Screams From The Light Years" received the most accolades, praised for its urgent musical backdrop and scene setting and emotional lyrics. Most reviews singled out the opening couplet, "I'm alone in the hinterland of a town that eats everything alive / It's dead in the sky but the light pollution that gags the galaxies," as among the album's best lyrics.

Commercial

On February 4, 2021, Tambora entered the Urapopstar Top 40 Albums Chart at #2, behind a second-week climb for friend and frequent collaborator Amy Marshall's seventh studio album, FEROCIOUS. Despite becoming Romo's first album not to debut at #1, it sold 121,709 copies in its first week, marking a new career high for Romo just five months after Romo (II) passed her prior career first week sales high achieved in 2009.

Remaining a strong seller even before the commercial release of the lead single "No One Ever Gets What They Want", Tambora became Romo's first album ever to sell 100,000 copies or more over three consecutive weeks, holding the #2 position all three weeks, first behind FEROCIOUS. and then behind Indigo Peak's Never Really Gone. However, sales of the album dramatically fell after "No One Ever Gets What They Want" underperformed and Romo subsequently disappeared from the spotlight.

Tambora has sold a total of 724,295 copies, enough to be certified gold. It is Romo's first album to fail to go platinum.

Track listing

All songs written and produced by Jenna Romo, except where otherwise noted.

1. "The Scorched Earth"
2. "No Summer"
3. "Tall Tales Of True Love"
4. "Screams From The Light Years"
5. "Lupus (Or, The Fall Of The World's Greatest Superpower)"
6. "No One Ever Gets What They Want"

Credits

• "No Summer" and "Lupus (Or, The Fall Of The World's Greatest Superpower)" were co-written by Romo and Luke Ramada. Ramada also provides uncredited guest vocals on "No Summer".
  
• "No One Ever Gets What They Want" was co-produced by Romo and Andre Cassenove.
• "Tall Tales Of True Love" contains an interpolation of "Dear Miss Leading" by the Dear Hunter.
• "Lupus (Or, The Fall Of The World's Greatest Superpower)" contains an interpolation of "Holiday In Cambodia" by the Dead Kennedys.