Hello again! Time for another Sunday Session release, and another Album Series (I may have too many of those ongoing things…). Anyway, this one is a proper headbanger – Royal Blood’s Back to the Water Below! Their fourth studio album from 2023, plus a bonus selection spanning their back catalog!
I always kinda knew about Royal Blood, but I got into them as I was starting to date my girlfriend – they are her favorite band. So as things progressed, naturally I got into them and started authoring a bunch of their songs for Rock Band so we can play them together. A romantic project that has now become one for the community!
For the unaware, Royal Blood are a duo – vocalist and bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher – from Brighton, England. As you might have noticed, there are no guitars in this band, and yet they make a wall of sound that rocks as hard as anyone. Kerr runs his bass through a chain of octavers, pedals, and amps to simultaneously cover the guitar and bass frequencies. So all those huge riffs? Just bass. I’ve authored them as such – I know some previous Royal Blood charts, including HMX’s official “Figure it Out,” doubled the guitar on the bass chart, but I went for the realism route: everything played on bass, authored only to bass.
Royal Blood’s debut was iconic, as was their sound – but they ran into the issue that many bands with a signature sound run into. What next? You either repeat yourself and keep milking your sound until people are tired of it, or you change things up and lose your gimmick. Royal Blood navigated this pretty well. Their second record, How Did We Get So Dark?, was stylistically similar to the debut and almost as strong. The third album, Typhoons, saw them going in a dancier, electronic direction, produced by Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme. Both were successful records, and both are represented here with three bonus tracks each.
So what now? Back to the Water Below found the duo going back to basics – back to their home studio in Brighton, self-produced, no outside hands. The result is their most focused and personal record. Lyrically, Kerr – who went sober in 2019 – pulls no punches, the album tracing his relationship with addiction, temptation, and self-doubt across ten tracks. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, making it their fourth consecutive #1.
So let’s start! Thanks jphn for the graphics and the previews!
“Shiner in the Dark” kicks off this pack with exactly what you want from Royal Blood – a swaggering, fuzzed-up groove with a coda that builds into an absolute headbanger (Album opener “Mountains at Midnight” was already authored by mb1nightmare). “Pull Me Through” showcases their new direction – it opens as a delicate piano song before an anthemic, personal chorus hits hard. “The Firing Line” is a similar anthemic ballad, with a great chorus and even some guitar – technically a Danelectro 12-string with all the strings removed except the last two, so… kind of a bass?
“Tell Me When It’s Too Late” snaps everything back into place – a slinky, tightly-coiled groove that leans into Royal Blood’s heavier side, with some Bonham-style triplets on drums. Right behind it is “Triggers” – a dancy track that channels the demon-conquering themes of the record into a chorus you can’t stop singing. “Can’t stop reminiscing about the life I was living!” I had this one stuck in my head for ages.
The album closes on a particularly emotional pair of songs. “There Goes My Cool” is a beautiful, dreamy, almost glam-tinged track with falsetto from Kerr and a winding bass solo that catches you completely off guard. Finally, “Waves” closes things out in beautiful fashion – a great chorus, some very emotional lyrics, and, as it happens, my girlfriend’s favorite Royal Blood song. Probably mine too.
Download:
Shiner in the Dark
Pull Me Through
The Firing Line
Tell Me When It’s Too Late
Triggers
There Goes My Cool
Waves
As a bonus, this pack reaches back across the Royal Blood discography for six more essential tracks. From How Did We Get So Dark? (2017): “Lights Out”, the massive “I Only Lie When I Love You”, and “Hook Line & Sinker” – all three delivering the classic Royal Blood sound of heavy bass riffs and drums. From Typhoons (2021): the disco-influenced “Trouble’s Coming” (featured in the soundtracks of Dirt 5, FIFA 21, NHL 21, Forza Horizon 5, The Crew Motorfest, and NASCAR 21: Ignition – quite the resume), the thundering title track “Typhoons”, and the awesome “Boilermaker”, with its unique Josh Homme-produced sound.
Bonus – How Did We Get So Dark? (2017)
Lights Out
I Only Lie When I Love You
Hook Line & Sinker
Bonus – Typhoons (2021)
Trouble’s Coming
Typhoons
Boilermaker
That’s it! Tune in next Sunday for another Sunday Session, and another deep dive into a great album!
This release is part of the Album Series. Previous entries include:
1. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
2. Silver Jews – Tanglewood Numbers
3. Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
4. Summer Salt – Happy Camper
5. My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade
6. Beach Bunny – Honeymoon & Blame Game
7. Jimi Hendrix – Band Of Gypsys
8. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Unlimited Love
9. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
10. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Infest the Rats’ Nest
11. The Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs
12. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
13. George Harrison – All Things Must Pass
14. Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Barafundle
15. Suede – Autofiction
16. Silver Jews – American Water
17. Blur – Modern Life is Rubbish
18. R.E.M. – Murmur
19. Coldplay – Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
20. Cream – Disraeli Gears
21. Tanya Donelly – Love Songs for Underdogs
22. The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound
23/24. The Breeders – Pod/Last Splash
25/26. Big Star – 1# Record/Radio City
27. The Strokes – Room on Fire
28. Echo & the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain
29/30. Stephen Malkmus – Stephen Malkmus/Pig Lib
31. The Clash – The Clash
32. Screaming Females – Desire Pathaway
33/34. Pixies – Come On Pilgrim/Surfer Rosa
35/36. The Jam – All Mod Cons/Sound Affects
37/38. Blondie – Blondie/Parallel Lines
39. Young the Giant – Young the Giant
40. The Undertones – The Undertones
41. Elvis Costello – Armed Forces
42. Sir Chole – Party Favors
43. Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night
44. The Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten
45/46. Pulp – His ‘N’ Hers/Different Class
47-51. Ninja Sex Party – Strawberries and Cream/The Prophecy/Cool Patrol/Attitude City/NSFW
52-53. The Sundays – Reading Writing And Arithmetic/Static And Silence
54. PJ Harvey – Dry
55-57. Green Day – Nimrod/Insomniac/Warning
58. The Zombies – Odessey & Oracle
59/60. Gram Parsons – GP/Grievous Angel
61. Carole King – Tapestry
The Album Series is an ongoing collaborative project. If you would like to get involved, be sure to reach out to Yaniv297 for more information on how to participate.
