After three years away because of “writers’s block, collective band depression and half-hearted ventures into other lines of work,” The Royal Concept have finally bounced back with a fantastic new single. Need To Know sits wonderfully between Swedish melancholy and the California sun, will appeal to fans of the more discerning pop and indie sound and somehow seems like both a wonderfully reverential step back whilst being a sure-footed sonic move forward.
Yes, you find the band revelling in 60’s psychedelia and hazy yet accessible cosmic pop vibes but they seem to be pushing the potential of indie forward at the same time. Such is the cyclical nature of music I guess, the further forward you travel the further back you can see, or possible vice versa. It all sounds a bit quantum to me. But even if I can’t properly explain it and even if the band are using a patchwork of past sounds to stitch their sonic quilt, it is definitely a quilt that is as knowingly retro as it is fashionably hip.
