Typhoons by Royal Blood
Typhoons is the third studio album by English rock duo Royal Blood, released through Warner Records on 30 April 2021. A predominately self-produced effort, the band recorded the album throughout 2019 and 2020. The album also marks a notable shift in the band's sound, pairing their usual alternative and hard rock sound with elements of dance rock and disco. Three singles have been released from the album ("Trouble's Coming", "Typhoons", and "Limbo"), in addition to the promotional single "Boilermaker". Recording Royal Blood began recording the album in early 2019. Halfway through the year, they embarked on a tour consisting of intimate shows as well as appearances at festivals such as the Reading and Leeds Festivals. During this tour the band debuted the songs "Boilermaker" and "King" live, both of which appeared on the album, though "King" was relegated to just the deluxe versions. They resumed recording later that year. Recording of the album stretched into early 2020, when it was forced to be halted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in England. The band wrote additional songs during the pandemic, two of which lead singer Mike Kerr felt were "the two best songs on the record". Promotion On 24 September 2020, the band released "Trouble's Coming", the lead single from the album. The video for the single was premiered on 23 October 2020, and in the same month it was included as a part of the soundtracks for the EA Sports video games NHL 21 and FIFA 21. The song went on to be a commercial success, reaching No. 8 in Scotland and No. 46 in the United Kingdom. On 21 January 2021, the band revealed the title of the album as Typhoons, as well as announcing its tracklist and release date of 30 April 2021. Additionally, they released the album's title track as a single on the same day. A music video for the song was released on 28 January. It reached No. 63 in the UK as well as No. 2 in the country's Rock & Metal singles chart. On 25 March, the band released "Limbo" as the third single from Typhoons. On 13 April, "Boilermaker" was released with an accompanying music video directed by and starring Liam Lynch. In a four star review for NME, Typhoons was praised as Royal Blood's "best work to date" and describes the track 'Boilermaker' as the "album's true centrepiece". Gigwise held the album in similar acclaim, stating that Typhoons forges "the sound of modern masters honing their craft to reinvigorate the genre". The Independent praised the band for reinventing their sound, making comparisons with Daft Punk-esque electronic flairs, and assesses that "the riffs are better, arrangements more textured, harmonies more interesting". In a less positive review, DIY says that the "songs here may be more melodic, more complex even on paper, but in reality there's little there to truly grab hold of".
In January 2019, Royal Blood travelled to LA to record with Josh Homme at the Queens of the Stone Age frontman’s Pink Duck studio. The sessions produced “Boilermaker”, a track from the Sussex rock duo’s third album <i>Typhoons</i>, but it was also a trip that generated two important changes for singer/bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher. Firstly, Kerr stopped drinking. On a weekend break from recording, he headed to Vegas. “I was at a real crescendo,” he tells Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson. “I was a nutter. I was like Ron Burgundy at the bar, washed up. And I could hear the same old monologue going on. I could see I was bored of my complaints about myself. I had a very clear moment of ‘Something’s got to change. I can’t expect things to get any better if I don’t really take responsibility for this.’”<br /> Secondly, Homme encouraged Kerr and Thatcher to worry less about perfection and explore the untapped possibilities for their music. “There’s a lot of wigs, a lot of fancy dress,” says Kerr about Pink Duck. “It’s a place to have fun. He is very good at creating an environment where you feel comfortable putting forward an idea no matter how crazy it might be. I think he says, ‘What if?’ more than anyone I’ve ever met. That mantra got drilled into us and we’ve carried that into the rest of this record.” Both developments resonate through <i>Typhoons</i>. Across two previous albums—double-platinum debut <i>Royal Blood</i> in 2014 and follow-up <i>How Did We Get So Dark?</i> in 2017— the duo minted ferocious, divergent rock from just drums, bass and effects pedals.<br /> Even more free-spirited, <i>Typhoons</i> retools their sound for the dance floor, marshalling riffs to four-to-the-floor beats. It’s a limber, swaggering sound they’ve nicknamed “AC Disco”—but factor in the big pop melodies on “Million and One” and “Trouble’s Coming” and you could also call it Black ABBAth. And like all the best disco, <i>Typhoons</i> bears plenty of emotional weight, with the songs unflinchingly tracing Kerr’s turbulent path towards sobriety. “It was the only thing I had to write about,” he says. “I got to the point where I <i>really</i> understood who I was, and having that kind of genuine confidence is crucial for being creative. It allowed me to trust myself with it rather than second-guessing anything. I felt a little less exposed: It almost felt like the lyrics were a bit disguised because the music was so upbeat and euphoric. I felt amazing and so positive that I was in a much better place, yet the only thing I had to write about was incredibly dark. So it’s a strange duality on the album.”<br /> Only at the very end do the music’s rigour and strut drop, when Kerr swaps his bass for a piano on the airy, psychedelic ballad “All We Have Is Now”. “Perhaps it points towards the unknown of where we’re going next,” he says. “It ended up on the record because [we thought], ‘That’s really great.’ It doesn’t matter whether it aligns with what we’ve done before or what people say we’re allowed to do. As long as we’re not trying to fight for someone we used to be, or trying to jump too aggressively forwards to be a band we’re not yet, as long as we stay true to who we are in the moment, then we’ll be OK.”
