The World Romantic

One of a band’s biggest challenges is finding its own sound, and the World Romantic has done it. But the players are so locked into this style that their EP gets the redundancy blues by track two. Granted, the first cut, “Pop Culture,” is distinctive: Lead singer James Dzuris caresses fragile lines like “Leave me here with these bruises” in a glass-menagerie tenor as keyboards, guitars, strings and the rhythm section of bassist Trevor Noel and brother Joe Dzuris on drums provides a luxuriantly sentimental backdrop. But “The Last Night” works much the same territory, as do “Satellite Love Affair,” “Race to the Sea” and so on. Now that they’ve established their sonic signature, they need to find different things to do with it.