Escape With Romeo – Suspicious Bliss (Digital/CD Album – Zeit.Klang Records)
Escape With Romeo returns with their first new album since 2015. This year, the German band led by Thomas Elbern also celebrates 35 years of existence. Following a few EP releases, their new full length features 14 songs inspired by our dystopian world. This theme has proven to be highly inspiring, resulting in beautifully crafted tracks. Each song is a work of art, imbued with a certain melancholy, where guitars and electronics seamlessly merge to create an exciting and cohesive whole. At times ethereal and even slightly psychedelic, as in the opening track, the album also explores danceable rhythms and grooves driven by dynamic sequences in other songs. This variety places the work somewhere between Rock-Wave and melancholic Pop, with a polished, meticulous achievement. Adding to its elegance, Thomas Elbern’s vocals are complemented by a female voice on several tracks, bringing a delicate yet powerful nuance to the compositions. While it would be an overstatement to say Escape With Romeo has entirely reinvented themselves, this album feels more refined and perhaps even more accessible than ever. A triumphant and noteworthy return! (Rating:8½).
Listen to “The Weight Of The World”:
About Escape With Romeo
Escape With Romeo was founded in Cologne in 1989 by singer and guitarist Thomas Elbern. Before launching the band, Elbern had been active in Seltsame Zustände and later played guitar and wrote songs for Pink Turns Blue. Musically the band described its style as “Post Punk meets modern Electronica”.
The band’s early catalog was released through Sound Factory. That run started with the self-titled “Escape With Romeo” in 1990, followed by “Autumn on Venus” in 1991, “Next Stop Eternally” in 1993, “Blast of Silence” in 1996 and “How Far Can You Go” in 1998. The early single “Somebody” became the band’s best-known scene track, and keyboard player Martin Pott joined from the second album onward.
From 2001 onward, Escape With Romeo releases moved to Zeitklang, the label run by Thomas Elbern. Albums from that period include “Come Here White Light” (2001), “Love Alchemy” (2002), “Psalms of Survival” (2004), “Emotional Iceage” (2007), “Samsara” (2012) and “After the Future” (2015). The band announced its farewell in 2017, played a final tour in 2018, and after festival appearances in 2019 was dissolved.
The band returned in 2022 with “Based on a True Story – Best of Escape With Romeo”, a double compilation that reworked older material. In early 2025, Thomas Elbern looked back on the band’s history in a Side-Line interview, ‘It’s The Melody That Creates The Magic’. Anno 2026, Thomas is joined by Max Küchenmeister, Franz “Frenzy” Erl and Tobias Schwartz.
“Suspicious Bliss”, released on November 1, 2024 via Zeit.Klang Records, marked the first new studio album since “After the Future” and is the album reviewed here.
I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
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