‘Typhoons’ Royal Blood album review
Brighton’s duo Royal Blood might only have worked with Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme on one track, current single “Boilermaker”, but listening to the pair stomp their way through the material on new album “Typhoons”, it’s obvious that the American rocker had more than just a tiny bit of influence on the songs. “Typhoons” is the pairs first album since 2017’s smash hit “How Did We Get So Dark” and, as the opening track “Trouble’s Coming” pulses into life, it’s not long before you’ll be hooked.
Reaching track three, the title track, the infectious beats that pump away alongside a Queens of the Stone Age swagger will have your toe-tapping and your head nodding along. Utterly hypnotic, these might be songs that lyrically are inspired by “darker times”, but those beats are so infectious it’s ridiculous. “Typhoons” is the sound of a band who are just oozing confidence out of every pour and it shows with the album getting better and better with each dance-soaked beat. Exploring personal struggles on the title track, frontman Mike Kerr exclaims “all these chemicals dancing through my veins, they don’t kill the cause, they just numb the pain” bringing you crashing down as you realise that, for all those delicious pop beats, “Typhoons”, lyrically at least, comes from dark places for the pair. “Who Needs Friends” sees Kerr taking a swipe at the “cheapskates on my right, vultures up ahead”, while “Limbo” sees the frontman declare “I’ve become someone I don’t recognise, I despise,” as, again and again, the album delves into some clearly very personal waters.
For all the trouble contained amongst Kerr’s lyrics, recent interviews have seen the vocalist state that those times won’t last forever. What that leaves you with is an album you can put on that will help you forget those troubles even if it is just for forty minutes or so. It does that with a collection of absolutely banging tunes. Tunes like the attitude-filled “Boilermaker”, a song that, come the return of live shows in the hopefully none-to-distant future, will be one of many from “Typhoons” which will have you dancing your troubles away.
For more information head to www.royalbloodband.com
