Royal Blood – ‘Back To The Water Below’ album review: A crucial moment of reinvention
Royal Blood understand rock music, and not just in the sense that they know “only nine people” enjoy it. Following their cringe-inducting outburst at Radio 1’s Big Weekend, in which comments such as “we’re having to clap ourselves because that was so pathetic” were uttered to the crowd, Back To The Water Below shows that outside the rockstar theatrics, Royal Blood understand the mechanics of making an excellent rock record.
The Brighton duo made up of Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher, have come out with a full-bodied, riff-heavy record in a crucial moment of reinvention. Solely written and produced by the band, its lyrics can be as forthright as Typhoons, but the darkness is addressed far less explicitly. In place of the confessional tone is a more abstract look at guilt and anxiety, maybe best exemplified by ‘Pull Me Through’, the most intriguing track.
The unabashed reliance on someone else for emotional regulation it touches on is incredibly refreshing – “Want the truth? I need you / To pull me through” – and a nice tonic to the more self-flagellating tone that creeps up on the rest of the album. It also feels miles away from the petulance of the on-stage fiasco of last May. The age of old-school rock ‘n’ roll debauchery is dead and not worth attempting to revive. Their earnest look at their own emotional landscape fairs them far better and is a lot less one note.
It’s ‘Pull Me Through‘ that you’ll find yourself returning to, if not just to figure out why its opening piano notes sound so strangely flat but rousing. It undercuts the entire song, a bizarre jangle to its beat that rattles around your head until a typically scuzzy-heavy riff takes its place, returning right when you’ve nearly forgotten it.
It’s a clear statement of intent that Royal Blood are not a one-trick stadium rock band. And if that didn’t exemplify it – ‘The Firing Line’ has not one hint of distortion on it. That being said, ‘Shiner In The Dark’ is guaranteed to electrify live, a distorted, fuzzed-up number that will have audiences screaming along, much like they did ‘Little Monster’. But in turn, they are still able to slow down the pace somewhat on the more introspective ‘Waves’, which has another stunning piano line running through it.
The duo have put together a mixed bag of rock songs but showed a necessary restraint and poured just as much energy into their slower, more subdued numbers. They skirted dangerously close to being pigeon-holed before the release of Typhoons, but this album quite clearly highlights that they are not intent on being a band wheeled out to do the crowd-pleasers on the festival circuit.
But the real trick wasn’t expanding their repertoire but making sure it sounded unequivocally like Royal Blood. Kerr’s guitar is a consistent bedrock of their sound, which will always have a failsafe home in the grungey, rocky sounds they first made their mark with. Sure, the album can grow to be formulaic (especially if you’re not a fan of their heavy-handed water metaphors), but as they have well proved, rock can only be reinvented so many times. Extending their reach while maintaining their trademark sound heralds a promising fresh start.
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