“Described as a six-piece indie electro chamber rock band, The Outside Royalty certainly know how to build intrigue.”
Label: Bloody Awful Poetry
Release Date: 12/05/08
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Described as a six-piece indie electro chamber rock band, The Outside Royalty certainly know how to build intrigue. Within the band’s sound you can hear the influence of Pulp, Roxy Music and even late 60s baroque pop, making for an interesting mix.
‘Falling’ starts out fairly inauspiciously, but as soon as Adam Billing’s Bryan Ferry-esque vocals enter there is a clear sign that a more leftfield path is being tread. The track then erupts into a meld of guitars, violins and brass, creating a wonderful mix of arty, slightly camp rock with the very prim and proper sounds of a string quartet.
It is within the lyrics where the band’s influences come through strongest. Billing is clearly a Jarvis Cocker fan: “It was coffee for her and tea for me/ I’m an American man, she teaches chemistry”, though he does not really attempt the same wry observations, pursuing instead a more positive line. There is a pleasing individualism about this record, though it does wears its influences like a brightly coloured scarf, there is enough scope within the sound to suggest that they could step into their own light given time. A greater emphasis on their baroque elements of brass and strings may be one way to do this.
Release Date: 12/05/08
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Described as a six-piece indie electro chamber rock band, The Outside Royalty certainly know how to build intrigue. Within the band’s sound you can hear the influence of Pulp, Roxy Music and even late 60s baroque pop, making for an interesting mix.
‘Falling’ starts out fairly inauspiciously, but as soon as Adam Billing’s Bryan Ferry-esque vocals enter there is a clear sign that a more leftfield path is being tread. The track then erupts into a meld of guitars, violins and brass, creating a wonderful mix of arty, slightly camp rock with the very prim and proper sounds of a string quartet.
It is within the lyrics where the band’s influences come through strongest. Billing is clearly a Jarvis Cocker fan: “It was coffee for her and tea for me/ I’m an American man, she teaches chemistry”, though he does not really attempt the same wry observations, pursuing instead a more positive line. There is a pleasing individualism about this record, though it does wears its influences like a brightly coloured scarf, there is enough scope within the sound to suggest that they could step into their own light given time. A greater emphasis on their baroque elements of brass and strings may be one way to do this.