DeathbyRomy’s Hollywood Forever Finds Beauty in the Wreckage of Los Angeles

DeathbyRomy

On Hollywood Forever, DeathbyRomy turns trauma into anthems, heartbreak into hooks, and survival into a defiant art form. Her debut LP is a fierce, unflinching chronicle of what it means to grow up chasing dreams in the smoke-and-mirror sprawl of Los Angeles — a city that promises everything and delivers just enough to keep you crawling back for more.

Across 13 tracks, Romy builds a neon-lit cathedral to contradiction: euphoria collides with pain, glamour masks decay, and hope fights to exist in a world that tries to crush it. From the searing opening moments of "LA LA LAND," she makes it clear she’s not here to sugarcoat anything. "Concrete cocaine, fake tits, migraines" she snarls, a chorus that feels less like a complaint and more like a streetwise prayer. It's an indictment of the culture — and a love letter to it, too.

“YUNG & RICH,” a blistering collaboration with Wargasm and bodyimage, doubles down on the chaos, taking aim at LA’s trust-fund elite with pulverizing basslines and venom-soaked vocals. Meanwhile, "Little Dreamer" pulls the lens inward, delivering a raw ballad about nurturing dreams in the face of endless noise. It’s the kind of vulnerable moment that reminds you: beneath the armor, Romy’s heart still beats loud.

The record’s emotional centerpiece, “Pray to Me” (featuring Palaye Royale), blends gothic romanticism with industrial crunch, finding beauty in obsession and surrender. It’s the sound of a love story built on cracked pavement and cigarette burns — damaged, imperfect, completely alive.

Hollywood Forever shines brightest in its contrasts. DeathbyRomy isn’t trying to escape LA’s underbelly; she’s illuminating it, finding flashes of transcendence in the wreckage. There’s real freedom here, in the way she moves between industrial pop bangers, confessional ballads, and seething anti-anthems. Her refusal to choose one side of herself is part of the album’s power.

And while the pain is palpable — exploitation, betrayal, loneliness — it never defines her. Instead, Romy frames these experiences as stepping stones toward a stronger, sharper sense of self. “This album tells my story,” she’s said. On Hollywood Forever, she tells it without flinching — and invites listeners to find their own messy, miraculous resilience along the way.

At a time when so much alt-pop feels sanitized, DeathbyRomy delivers something real: an album as jagged and dazzling as the city that made her. Hollywood Forever isn’t about surviving the fall; it’s about making the fall part of the dance.

★★★★☆

–Benny Torres