Noothersongin the world will demonstrate the despair – and sporadic hope – we’ve been feeling this year from the last.
The true epitome of music for the summer, Strabe’s Best Worst Year is the only second release for the band, and it’s the one we’ve resonated with most.
For good reasons, too.
The pensive lyrical decisions, the funky guitar twangs throughout, and the ulta-electro beat that fashions it for the perfect bop, it is a titan of a track for summer anthems and requires your attention immediately.
A humble track from such a humble artist that is not been formally known or heard in the vines since 2019 – since this release actually.
The temptations of an amazing road trip is all too much, and you can be sure that this titan of a track will most certainly tip you over the edge. I’ll soon be hearing tales of how this song inspired a mass population to drop everything and arrive at the beach in one swoop.
Get those swimming shorts from the top shelf, because you’re going to be gone for awhile.
After a 4 year hiatus from their rampant, aptly-named follow-up of How Did We Get So Dark? and Mike’s rise from his struggle with the rock ‘n’ roll life of alcohol addiction … they blow off the cobwebs …let a little light in … and develop a fresh take on delectable dance-floor grooves with their highly anticipated third album, Typhoons.
Who said elements of Daft Punk would work so well with the sounds of Royal Blood, eh?
Although not featuring the same angst and bitter troubles we saw on the two albums prior, Typhoons brings a certain shine to their musical palette of still finding ways to create anthem-pleasers, but not having to always resort to the moods of their eponymous debut. While this may create some disappointment among fans as they wish for more of the same, Typhoons is a true tale of rising from your own self-destruction from “flying too close to the sun.”
An excess of redemption and solace, Typhoons packs the punch in another twisting tale for this Brighton band.
After the befalls of what a rock ‘n’ roll life bought him with alcohol, Mike started on the road to recovery – all to find his sense of purpose again in writing music.
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You made me believe I could change That’s why you’re one in a million and one
–Million and One
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Life is hard when you’re losing, nothing easy’s worth doing Save yourself, don’t throw in the towel
-Hold On
——
With it, comes a redeeming of a band once lost, a splash of all-important colour and and still, a rampant discography listing once again that will no doubt shake the timbers of the arenas they are planning on performing in the Spring of next year.
At first, I had my doubts and fears of a band possibly resorting to the comforts of their softer side. Especially how big the band had gotten with their elemental nature and their dark presence in the past – – but the album has a flair of creativity that honestly was not expected from me.
Mike’s tales of struggle are littered throughout this album with Oblivion discussing losing his way with “fire in his lungs” and the demons that bring with bad habits in Who Needs Friends. The noteworthy guitar/bass combo and the beautifully simplistic AC-DC-inspired drumming is still prominent and won’t ever dissipate, of course.
But, Typhoons shows us a side to the Brighton duo we haven’t really seen as of yet. Raucous where needed but still featuring those new twists of dance-floor grooves in Million in One and Mad Visions, it is the next strongest tale for the story of Royal Blood.
Hey, folks. I just wanted to give you a little update on where we are right now with live music. With us firmly on the roadmap for return in the UK, we can confirm all those summer gigs and events will go ahead with the comforting prospect of us soon returning to some sense of normality within our daily lives. Especially after those Spanish concert-tests revealing as no new cases or issues concerning the disease, it all seems to be going accordingly to plan – touch wood.
Here’s to our SUMMER OF HOPE FOR LIVE MUSIC.
If you’re planning on braving it out there in the sun …
Do you ever feel like you go through the same old music catalogues, playlists and albums day-in and day-out?
Do you have that feeling of drought with your musical palette? Well, fret not, for I have a proposition.
Why not listen to something other than what you’re used to?
Be it a genre you’re not familiar with or an artist you dread, stick it on and delve into the plethora of the unknown. Even if it just for an hour and you come away with a little bit of knowledge about something you didn’t know an hour ago, that is equally fine.
For me, I’ve recently been diving into the classics of hip-hop, rap and more importantly, the mysteries with the likes of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.
Notorious in not just their alter-personas as international music artists, but notorious for their sounds they made and their power-house profile it brought to the scenes of East Coast hip-hop and “Gangsta rap”. Although they were taken from us by a scenario we’re all too familiar with, within the crevices of America, the sheer impact they had with us in the world paints us a picture how iconic these two were and are.
Of course, this led on to the mightiest who are still mighty in their corresponding leagues – Eminem, Jay-Z and Kanye.
So for today’s Sunday – where I usually request for you to take out your favourite Sunday chill playlist with your morning (or afternoon) coffee, instead, listen to something different and learn something new along the way.
Hope your week upcoming is just as prosperous, folks. Take care of yourselves.
Today is the day I return to the art of drumming in what seems like a year without playing. Due to the restrictions for rehearsal spaces during COVID, it’s been more about 6 months or so but still, I am allowed to exaggerate, especially after being away from the kit for so long.
I intend to lug all my drum pieces up to a local rehearsal space and blast the kit to my hearts’ content. I am awaiting the desperate attempts of staying hydrated, keeping healthy and not hitting instant exhaustion half hour in but I fear that may be the case, especially after not having the consistency of rigorous drum practice week-in and week-out.
But alas, I’ll push myself through it because I want to have that feeling again, I miss it. That feeling of having nothing left to give and feeling amazing for it from playing a musical instrument. There’s nothing else like it.
Time to dust the cobwebs off, folks and dive in head-first.
Blisters-abound I’m sure, I’ll see you on the other side.
