I first became aware of Juliet And The Lonesome Romeos
when a friend handed me a flyer for one of their shows. Knowing I’m a huge
Shakespeare fan, she pointed out the band’s name. So right away I was
interested. But it was after watching a couple of the band’s live performances
online that I knew I had to get their CD.
No Regets is
the debut album from Juliet And The Lonesome Romeos. This album is mainly folk
and country, but definitely with heavy pop and rock influences. For example,
listen to “Narcissus” for more of a rock tune, and “Last Kiss” for a pop song.
All of the songs here are originals, all but one of them written or co-written
by Juliet Simmons Dinallo.
No Regrets
opens with its title track, a song about being strong on one’s own, and Juliet
has just the voice for it. Her voice has beauty, but also power; hers is a
voice that’s not shy or fearful. In this
one she sings, “You cast a spell on me,
but I’m alone all the time, all the time/Empty words you say are killing me
today/So goodbye, this time I can’t stay.” I also like this line: “I can’t see your face, but I could always
see right through, right through you.” Of course, endings are rarely
definite, as Juliet hints in a line late in the song: “So goodbye once more until we meet again.”
“Wishing Well” has an interesting structure with regards
to the way it tells its story, the way it creates the character and
relationship through shifts in time. It begins “Just a girl of twenty-two/Thinking long and hard about you/Since I got
the news today/Telling me you’ve gone away.” Then, “I
don’t know what I’m supposed to feel/It’s a little bit surreal/Been wishing for
the day/You would finally go away/But it doesn’t ease my mind/It just takes me
back in time.” So then she uses images of childhood, including a wishing
well. The song then moves forward ten years from its opening point: “Just a girl of thirty-two/Thinking long and
hard about you.” There is also some
nice work on electric guitar, and that part shows time passing, after which
Juliet sings, “Still a girl at forty-two/Thinking
long and hard about you/But what am I supposed to do/This is all I ever knew.”
“Song For You” is a pretty song, an unabashed love song,
in which she sings, “If I could, I’d give
you the world.” In this one she sings about the song itself, saying that “it’s straight from the heart,” and you
get the sense that that’s true of all her songs. She really opens herself,
giving herself in lines like “I simply I
don’t know what I’d do without you/I don’t know what I would do/This is a song
especially for you/It’s all that I have, it’s all I can do.”
“Narcissus” is more of a rock tune, with a certain amount
of anger in Juliet’s delivery, and an electric guitar lead part. She sings, “So I’m packing it up, I’ll see you in
hell/Maybe one day you will tell/That I wish you could have loved me like you
love yourself.” (It’s also one of
the world’s many songs that rhyme “self” with “shelf.” Not to call this band
out, but I think it’s time to call a moratorium on that particular rhyme.) Juliet And The Lonesome Romeos
follow this rock song with a pretty acoustic tune, “Winter Night.”
As I mentioned, it was the Shakespeare connection that
first got me interested in this band. And as it turns out, Juliet’s father was
a Shakespeare scholar, so she is actually named after that famous teenager.
There is another Shakespeare reference on this album, in the song “Unkindest
Cut,” a song about her father. The song’s title comes from a line from
Shakespeare’s The Tragedy Of Julius
Caesar. In Act III Scene ii, Antony tells the crowd about Caesar’s murder,
and when he mentions Brutus’ part, he says: “This was the most unkindest cut of all;/For when the noble Caesar saw
him stab,/Ingratitude, more strong than traitors’ arms,/Quite vanquish’d him.”
About her father, Juliet sings, “Between
me and the madness he didn’t get to choose/To see him fall is the unkindest cut
of all.” (By the way, in this song,
she mentions how people say “Everything
happens for a reason.” I too hate when people say that, for it’s such a simple,
meaningless thing to say, and it is always a lie.)
“Faded Highway” is one of my favorite tracks. It’s a gorgeous
country tune that is really driven by Juliet’s vocals. There is a delicious sadness
in her voice. Here is a taste of the lyrics: “On a faded highway just this side of nothing/Will I ever find my
way/Broken hearts and lost souls/They’re scattered all around me.” There
are also some nice backing vocals. “Faded Highway” was written by Michael
Dinallo.
No Regrets ends
with “Learn To Love Again,” a song of heartbreak and hope. “I want to sail away on a ship of fools/To a
desolate isle/When I can hide for a while/Where my heart can mend/And I can
learn to love again.” She adds an appropriate weariness to her voice for
certain lines. This is one of the album’s strongest tracks, and there is a
really nice lead section on electric guitar.
CD Track List
- No Regrets
- Wishing Well
- Song For You
- Narcissus
- Winter Night
- Last Kiss
- Unkindest Cut
- Faded Highway
- September Day
- Learn To Love Again
Musicians
Juliet And The Lonesome Romeos are Juliet Simmons Dinallo
on lead vocals; Michael Dinallo on electric guitar and acoustic guitar; Jonas
Kahn on electric guitar, acoustic guitar and bass; Michael A. Gray on electric
guitar and backing vocals; Steve Sadler on lap steel, accordion, fiddle and
backing vocals; Justin Kolak on bass; Marc Hickox on bass; Jeff Allison on drums,
percussion and B3; and Amber Casares on backing vocals.
No Regrets was
released on January 15, 2013 through Tree O Records.
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