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Benevolent to a fault, Royal Republic tell us pretty much all we need to know about what they do within the first two breathless, brutish and thoroughly exhilarating minutes of their debut album.
A short, sharp blast of bug-eyed rock‘n’roll, The Royal tears along, as furiously precise and stylishly aggressive as any album opener in recent memory. Pitched somewhere between the snappy cool of The Hives and the lascivious thump of Danko Jones, the rest of We Are The Royal is a taut and infectious blur of wickedly insistent riffs, cocksure sloganeering and hooks so enormous they could bring in a blue whale.
In a perfect world, President’s Daughter and Tommy-Gun would be vast global hits, so instant are the adrenalin shots they deliver. Meanwhile, Cry Baby Cry and Underwear reveal that these Swedes have plenty of goofy wit and suave charm to back up their electrifying, priapic attack. The latter, with its laudable refrain of: “I can see your underwear from down here!” looks certain to be a live favourite, and this is music that demands to be experienced for real.
If the shows match the album, Royal Republic could be one of 2011’s big success stories.
