Romantica: America

Band of Brits salvage American music... again

For anyone worrying that the Americana genre has become a repository of the bad irony of hipsters and has-been quacks, fear not: Romantica is here to save the day. Singer/songwriter Ben Kyle is the latest in a long line of European exports to reinvigorate a genre by reclaiming it as his own—“God walks on the water, I walk through the rain,” he sings. With one foot still in his home country, and one taking a tentative step into the mess of promises and disappointments on the other side of the pond, Kyle and his bandmates dust off the brilliance at the heart of America. Most albums with such ambitious titles fall flat in their attempt; Kyle—in songs and voice that sit comfortably between Jeff Tweedy and Ryan Adams—dwells comfortably in the long shadows cast by his forefathers while leaving his own undeniable stamp on the proceedings.