Dead but not yet buried, Royal City are back in your favourite record store with a 12 track anthology of B-Sides and previously unreleased material which will please old fans and maybe earn them some new ones. For those of you still unfamiliar with Royal City, the band formed in 1999; on vocals we find Aaron Riches, a singer with punk roots, and with him musicians Jim Guthrie, Nathan Lawr, Simon Osborne and Evan Gordon.
Their debut album, 'At Rush Hours the Cars' saw the light in 2000, but the one release still close to Royal City fans hearts is their award winning album 'Alone at the Microphone' which was released in 2001. After two more albums, Royal City split in 2004 and this compilation was supposed to be released back then. Unfortunately their old label Three Gut shut down, and until Asthmatic Kitty took charge and released 1999-2004 this year, these twelve gems seemed destined to be lost in music neverland.
With more than a hint of “Velvet Underground meet the Bad Seeds”, Aaron Riches vocal style closely reminds you of Lou Reed and that’s already something to put it in your top ten Sunday morning CD list. If you’re looking for something mellow to drift in and out of, 1999-2004 is ideal; I would not recommend putting on this compilation to get in the mood before a Saturday night out though.
1999-2004 opens with an Iggy Pop cover, “Here comes success”, and it’s a very interesting track; Lou Reed comes to mind again and this time more than ever, and the chilled acoustic vibe dominating this song will accompany us along the whole album. Out of the track list, I would definitely mention “A belly was made for wine”, about Riches’s drinking issues, “Postcards”, a truly sad song about unpleasant memories, “Bad luck”, which was previously released in a different version and sounds maybe a bit like Social Distortion's version of The Strokes song “Is This It?”. The lyrics are quite sad and dark, so really avoid this album as a background theme while getting ready to paint the town red otherwise you may end up painting it blue.
In conclusion, 1999-2004 is not your usual collection of leftovers put out to raise the last bit of cash. This material has nothing to envy to the four Royal City full length albums, it’s what you would expect from them at the best quality standards. Royal City are a band whose members found a sound and style they liked and they are quite happy to stay right there. Royal City is like an old pair of slippers on a chilled out day indoors, you can't get much more comfortable than this. But still remember to take them off before leaving the house.
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Royal City - 1999-2004 (CD)
Re: Royal City - 1999-2004 (CD)
