Royal Headache- Royal Headache

Sometimes you just want to listen to an album that is going to grab you by the collar and shake vigourously, the debut from Sydney band Royal Headache does just that, a tick over 30 minutes of sonic assault that leaves your ears craving more. This album has so many different styles condensed into a powerful raw garage explosion. At it's premise it's pretty simple, bass, guitar and drums and a punk inspired wall of noise. However there is considerable depth to this album, it's garage punk with some of the most raw soul inspired vocals I've heard for a long time.

The opening track Never Again lays the foundations in it's explosive beginning, jangling guitars, impassioned vocals which explore the thread of forlorn and despair in relationships. Really in Love explores the desperation of love once again in emphatic fashion, Surprise offers up a short burst of sunshine through the gloom whilst Psychotic Episode has a strident feel to it despite it's description of mental illness. Two Kinds of Love is an instrumental and it gives the band the opportunity to display something more structured and fluid, it's a great song and shows that Royal Headache has the musicianship to further develop their musical ideas. Back and Forth returns to the thread of angst and defeat, but it's a defeat cloaked in defiant resignation. Royal Headache have created an album that doesn't fade at any point, musically it's full on but it has that extra quality of soul to add to the mix.