Royal Blood - Typhoons

Royal Blood are Mike Kerr on bass and vocals and Ben Thatcher on drums.  They burst onto the scene in 2014 with their self-titled debut album which I thought was a flawless album.  Their sophomore effort "When did we get so dark" where although the singles were good, I thought was a patchy album. But nevertheless, I looked forward to seeing what they would come up with their 3rd album "Typhoons".  How the name of the album came about was simple as they just loved the song "Typhoons".

Royal Blood have always been known for their infectious grooves and when "Trouble coming" was released last year it looked like that was set to continue into their 3rd album.  But "Trouble coming" is a bit of a strange song in a way.  If you listen to the guitar and the drums it’s a feel good, upbeat anthem.  But in contrast if you listen to the lyrics, it's a reality check for someone in the depth of a mental health crisis.  The verse which goes "In my reflection, I see signs of psychosis, I try to pay them no attention, can't keep them under the service."  Particularly strikes home for me. Having had psychosis, it is a truly horrible thing to go through and it can last months if gone untreated. The thing is when you first get it you probably won't know what it is till you get diagnosed with it.   But I think it is good Royal Blood are bringing it into the public eye to maybe help people better understand the signs.  But with the serious undertones of the song, the irony is it is such a feel-good song which doesn't really make sense but at the same time it works.

"Trouble coming" is the first track on the album and really sets the scene.  They’re here to get the nation up and rocking again with deep Muse esque anthems.   The likes of "Oblivion", "Boilermaker" and "Mad Visions" are probably my favourites on the album. However, I wouldn't describe it as a complete album.  "One and Million" for instance starts off good and continues to get better throughout the song. But the outro for me goes on a bit too much as Mike Kerr's vocals just become disinteresting and dronie.  But the album is brought back to life again with "Limbo" which has a Daft Punk style intro before kicking back into Royal Blood mode.  This track sits at just under 5 minutes and in contrast to "One and Million" I just don't want this track to stop its so good.

Some tracks which don't hit the mark at all for me are "Who needs friends" and "Either you want it" which even then I would consider ok.  But the fact I've only mentioned two and half songs which don't quite do it for me you can see that most of it does.  I think though that their last track "All we have is now" may seem like a short, kind of anti climatic ending to the album as it seems to just disappear too quickly. I think it’s one of their most brave and ambitious tracks to date. And I'm not talking about brave and ambitious in music generally as hundreds of bands have songs that sounds like this.  But I have never heard them use keyboards or attempt this kind of track before so kudos to them for trying it.  I do think it is slighlty too short and room for improvement.  When you look at Wolf Alice's latest piano track really that is what I am comparing it too as Wolf set the bar very high.  But I like they are attempting something different.

Overall, I would say there are a few skippable tracks here but on the whole, this is an album which rocks so badly and has plenty of tracks which will fit quite easily into their live show.  Which is saying something considering many of the absolute belters on their first two albums.