The Last Days of Rome is Bedford, England based musician Jon Behrent's indie music project. ‘If You Want To Live Like This’ is taken from his forthcoming album (his fifth).
You can’t miss the strong classic 80’s synth band vibe. It’s quite a catchy number and it is not hard to imagine him dancing away in front of a keyboard miming this on Top of the Pops some time in 1983, having attracted buyers of singles by Soft Cell and Blancmange to spend their pocket money to put him at that week’s number 28! The driving bass synth line keeps it all together well under his wistful vocal. I liked the way it all builds to a crescendo towards the end as the backing vocals come in.
Jon describes it as a sideways step from his usual output, with influences from New Order (slightly but not much I think, but lyrically maybe), LCD Soundsystem (yes I can see that), and early Bloc Party (not familiar I’m afraid so can’t comment). Although lyrically different to their output, I did hear shades of Microdisney in there a little.
I took an enjoyable dip into The Last Days of Rome Bandcamp catalogue to see how much of a sideways step this track is, and conclude: not huge - it is a development in his sound five albums in! In his earlier output l recognised the strong influences of 80s and 90s indie and emo rock with occasional acoustic leanings. Death Cab for Cutie came to mind.
