Royal Republic
We Are The Royal

In comparison, their compatriots The Hives seem like serious and well-behaved guys. The Swedish Royal Republic debuted in 2010 with "We Are The Royal". Just over half an hour of lively and fun garage/alternative rock featuring catchy tunes such as "Tommy-Gun". "If you have to kill me use Tommy's gun!" A phrase taken as an example to convey the overwhelming silly absurdity that the Malmo quartet represents. Songs are short as the genre, mostly 'garage', predicts, generally two to three minutes, but they are never the same; the range is from the gripping "Good To Be Bad" to the very funny "Full Steam Spacemachine" which sees the band, both in the song and the corresponding video, in a battle against aliens! Also excellent is "Cry Baby Cry," which maintains high-quality levels, as does the third single " Underwear," in which the leader Adam Grahn boasts of being able to see a girl's panties from a distance, "We can see your underwear from down here!" he proudly shouts at the end of the track. So don't be surprised when listening to "21st century Gentleman," which strongly reminds one of the aforementioned The Hives, and don't be surprised either that "The End" is not actually the closing track; instead, the honor goes to the good "OIOIOI," a worthy finale to an absolutely quality album in a genre too often similar to itself and never convincing in its entirety.

The current "We Are The Royal" is the ideal record for a silly evening with friends, perhaps accompanied by a few too many beers! Our dear jesters, who have dominated the charts in Northern Europe with this album and, thanks to Roadrunner Records, managed to enter the UK market (in Italy they weren't even present in DeBaser.it's database), are currently engaged in a European tour that will see them perform in Milan on October 20th. For those who have the opportunity to see them live, I advise you not to hesitate and not to worry too much about subtleties and nuances. For those who do not appreciate them, there will be nothing left but to shoot themselves, if you have to, use Tommy's gun!