Royal Headache – Royal Headache (What’s Your Rupture)
By Scott Creney
This album’s great for what it is — tuneful, frenetic fun. At 26 minutes and change, it flies by faster than the best days of one’s youth. More agitated than angsty, it’s a music that sounds completely at ease with itself. It’s breezy and light like a sped-up Real Estate.
But unlike that band there’s a real energy here that more than compensates for its essentially lightweight nature. It’s fluffy, not flimsy — dirty, not Duffy.
At times, the singer sounds like a younger, more sober, Robert Pollard. Which is funny — a dude from Australia sounding like a guy from semi-rural Ohio trying to sound like he’s part of the British Invasion.
It’s the best week of summer vacation you ever had. The days when everything fell into place — when every party was magic, when you laughed until your sides ached, when even the heartbreak felt beautiful and the hangovers were all part of the plan.
The album’s totally rad. It’s just been released in the US. If there’s any justice, KROQ and 91X will play the fuck out of it.
To go on about Royal Headache any longer would be in violation of its spirit.