Royal Blood - How Did We Get So Dark? (Album Review)
Friday, 23 June 2017
Written by Liam Turner
If you listened to Royal Blood’s new LP and their self-titled debut side by side, you’d struggle to discern which came first. For almost any other band, that would be a sure sign that their creative flame was at risk of succumbing to the blackness of inertia. That’s not the case here.
‘How Did We Get So Dark?’ - a title that ironically implies the band’s sound might’ve undergone some kind of lugubrious metamorphosis - retains pretty much every element that made their initial bow so great. Infectious, bluesy moodiness? Check. Great thwacking drums? Check. A beefed-up bass guitar that sounds like an alligator munching through a Harley? Check. It’s paint-by-numbers rock ‘n’ roll, only the paint is a thick, black tar and the canvas a chrome monolith.
It was apparently a conscious decision, too, for the band to eschew the bells, whistles and fanciful production techniques that tend to stifle big follow up albums, in favour of sticking to their well-polished guns.
The keyboard-driven Hole In Your Heart may hint at a desire to get a little experimental, though it’s ultimately the no-nonsense bombast of I Only Lie When I Love You and Where Are You Now that prove the band were right to keep it simple.
Mike Kerr’s lyrics, on the other hand, are one of the few aspects of the album that would have benefited from some added sophistication. As ever, they’re disappointingly facile.
“We’ve burned to dust/now there’s no one you can trust,” he moans on the title track. “I wish we’d skip a beat/give up this hide and seek,” he wails on Don’t Tell. His dusky delivery dampens the banality somewhat, even if he does have a tendency to sound as though he’s fronting an English Queens of the Stone Age covers band.
But, as was the case with their debut, Royal Blood make it all too easy to forgive their shortcomings by completely nailing their core sound. Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher have clearly mastered the thick, heavy, hard and fast thing, and it doesn’t hurt that they can serve up a riff hotter than a freshly-struck anvil, either. In that regard, they really are the best in town. And when you’ve got that on your side, you don’t need a whole lot else.
Royal Blood Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Mon November 13 2017 - CARDIFF Motorpoint Arena Cardiff
Tue November 14 2017 - READING Rivermead Reading
Thu November 16 2017 - MANCHESTER Arena
Fri November 17 2017 - LEEDS first direct Arena
Sat November 18 2017 - BIRMINGHAM Barclaycard Arena
Mon November 20 2017 - LONDON Alexandra Palace
Tue November 21 2017 - LONDON Alexandra Palace
Fri November 24 2017 - GLASGOW SSE Hydro
Sat November 25 2017 - NOTTINGHAM Motorpoint Arena
Sun November 26 2017 - DUBLIN 3Arena
Tue November 28 2017 - BOURNEMOUTH Bournemouth Int'nl Centre
Wed November 29 2017 - BRIGHTON Centre
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