You almost expect the first moments of opener ‘Trouble’s Coming’ to be followed by Nile Rodgers yelling “ AHH, FREAK OUT!” Drummer Ben Thatcher’s swaggering AC/DC-style beats lead into a sleazy disco-meets-desert-rock groove as Kerr has a strong word with himself: “ Wishing I was someone better, wishing I could start all over again”. This record closely follows the frontman’s signposts to recovery while backed by an adventurous new sense of flair. Gearing towards a sound more “euphoric, danceable and fun” allowed Kerr “a licence to be vulnerable, and confidence to be more revealing”. As he told NME in Royal Blood’s recent Big Read cover story, “without sobriety, this album or this band wouldn’t exist”. He started on the long and difficult road to living without drink or drugs – not only regaining control of his life, but rekindling his sense of purpose. At the end of their last tour, frontman Mike Kerr found himself burned out from a life of rock’n’roll excess, with all the shame and regret that comes with it. You can forgive them adding a dash of colour when you consider what they were up against.
By being far more explicit about their dancefloor influences (think Daft Punk, Justice, Goldfrapp and Cassius), ‘Typhoons’ has much more of a glitterball shimmer than the previous jet-black palette of their self-titled 2014 debut and its aptly titled 2017 follow-up ‘ How Did We Get So Dark?’.
Love or hate Royal Blood, the focus on the Brighton duo has always centred around their elemental nature.
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