Another
two-piece comprised of just bass and drums.
It’s odd that two of my top 3 are minimal bass/drum combos this year. In fact, I just wrote above regarding the Death From Above 1979 record: ‘how they
make this fantastic racket with only two people: bass and drums (guitars
notable by their absence) is beyond me.’
This also applies – exactly – to Royal
Blood. They really live up to all
the hype, and this is about as good as a debut album gets (Amplifier aside, of course...).
From the hammering stop-start intro to ‘Out of the Black’, to the
hip-shaking finale of ‘Better Strangers’, this just exudes quality. I’m not quite sure that the ‘saviours of
rock’ tag is fair or entirely accurate, but it is wonderful to have a
mainstream rock band that writes songs this good. It’s grungy and edgy but accessible and
catchy. Brilliant riffs throughout, great
choruses, a cool voice that’s howling and caressing in equal measure, and a
general and pervading swagger that just sets them apart. ‘Little Monster’ is the biggest highlight –
one of the very best individual rock tracks of this or any other year – but
every single song on the record is exceptional. The most ‘worthy’ of all the
Mercury Music Prize nominees (both on this list and generally – who knows how
they didn’t win it). This is
masterful. Royal Blood have stridden out into the musical arena like they
already own the place. By album 2 they
might well be right.
sample track: Little Monster