Typhoons is the third studio album by English rock duo Royal Blood. The album was released on 30 April 2021, through Warner Records.

Background edit

The English rock duo Royal Blood released their second studio album, How Did We Get So Dark?, on 16 June 2017.[1] To support the album's release, the band headlined an arena tour in the United Kingdom and Ireland that November, with support from At the Drive-In and Black Honey.[2] They followed this with a headlining tour in Australia and New Zealand in April and May 2018,[3] and in North America in May and June.[4] During this series of headlining tours, bassist and vocalist Mike Kerr struggled with alcoholism and drug addiction, telling NME in 2021 that "[i]nstead of destroying the bass, I was basically destroying myself".[5] After completing a tour in Las Vegas, Kerr decided to become sober,[6] a decision which he kept a secret for the first year of his sobriety.[7]

Royal Blood also appeared as an opening act for Queens of the Stone Age on the North American leg of the Villains World Tour in September and October.[8] Kerr expressed his excitement at the tour, telling reporters, "when everything started kicking off, the first ambition we had was 'if we can go on the road with Queens of the Stone Age, that would be a huge achievement for us'".[9] When Queens of the Stone Age added more North American tour dates in 2018, Royal Blood joined them for a series of May performances in Canada, Wisconsin, and New York.[10] In November 2017, Kerr told the Evening Standard that touring with Queens of the Stone Age "nearly killed us ... It was absolute carnage."[11] During this period, Kerr and Royal Blood drummer Ben Thatcher became close friends with Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, and Kerr provided a vocal feature on Vols. 11 & 12, a 2019 album from Homme's side project The Desert Sessions.[12]

Writing and composition edit

Royal Blood told NME that Typhoons was inspired by AC/DC, with influences from classic rock, electronic dance music, and disco.[13]

The first track on the album, "Trouble's Coming", adds a synthesizer to Kerr and Thatcher's usual hard rock drum and bass sounds, creating a dance-rock track in the process.[14] The abstract lyrics describe Kerr's struggles with nightmares and mental health, which is juxtaposed against the lighter sound; Kerr told NME that he "felt more comfortable being that honest, that open and vulnerable, because the backdrop was so upbeat".[13]

Recording and production edit

Artwork and packaging edit

Release and promotion edit

Singles and music videos edit

Royal Blood first teased their upcoming release on 17 September 2020, when the band posted a photo of a vintage, orange-colored Ford vehicle to their Twitter and Instagram accounts. The vehicle's license plate read "ROYAL", while the post was captioned "24.09".[15] On 21 September, the band posted a teaser of a song titled "Trouble's Coming" on Instagram.[16] The full track was released three days later as the lead single for Royal Blood's then-untitled third album.[17] The band released a music video for "Trouble's Coming" on 23 October 2020. Directed by Dir. Lx, the video depicts a bloody Kerr navigating a darkened landscape.[18]

Tours and live performances edit

With COVID-19 restrictions impacting Royal Blood's ability to tour in 2021, the band announced "a few intimate gigs" in the United Kingdom in July 2021 to promote their new album.[19] This was followed by a European and UK arena tour in March and April 2022, with support from The Amazons.[20] One stop on this tour was Swansea, where Royal Blood played the first-ever concert at the Swansea Arena on 8 March 2022.[21] Five performances on the European tour were canceled or postponed after Kerr tested positive for the COVID-19 virus on 31 March, causing him to lose his voice.[22][23]

After completing their European tour with The Amazons, Royal Blood traveled to North America for another headlining tour in April and May 2022, this time with support from Cleopatrick.[24]

Reception edit

Critical reception edit

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.4/10[25]
Metacritic77/100[26]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [27]
Clash7/10[28]
Classic Rock     [29]
DIY     [30]
Evening Standard     [31]
The Independent     [32]
Kerrang!4/5[33]
The Line of Best Fit8/10[34]
NME     [35]
Under the Radar          [36]

Typhoons was met with mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Typhoons has an average score of 77 based on 14 reviews.[26] The review aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album 7.4 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[25]

American Songwriter[37] The FT[38] Gigwise[39] No Ripcord[40] Vinyl Chapters[41] XS Noize[42]

Commercial performance edit

Accolades edit

Track listing edit

Personnel edit

Credits adapted from the Typhoons liner notes.[43]

Royal Blood

  • Mike Kerr – bass, keyboards, vocals, backing vocals, clavinet, therevox
  • Ben Thatcher – drums, percussion

Additional musicians

  • Bobbie Gordon – backing vocals (1–2, 4, 9)
  • Jodie Scantlebury – backing vocals (2, 4, 9)

Technical

  • Royal Blood – production (1–3, 5–7, 9–11)
  • Paul Epworth – additional production (1), production (4)
  • Riley Macintyre – engineering (1, 4, 11), vocal production (5), mixing (11)
  • Pete Hutchings – engineering (1, 2, 9), mixing (2, 9, 12–13)
  • Matt Wiggins – additional engineering (1), engineering (3, 5–7, 10)
  • Claude Vause – engineering assistance (1, 7, 10)
  • Marcus Locock – engineering assistance (1, 3, 6–7, 10)
  • Matty Green – mixing (1, 3–8, 10)
  • Luke Pickering – engineering assistance (4, 5, 11)
  • Josh Homme – production (8, 12–13)
  • Mark Rankin – engineering (8, 12–13)
  • Justin Smith – engineering assistance (8, 12–13)
  • Joe LaPortamastering

Charts edit

Certifications edit

Certifications and sales for Typhoons
Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[68] Silver 60,000

Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References edit

  1. ^ "Stream The New Royal Blood Album, How Did We Get So Dark?". Kerrang!. 16 June 2017. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  2. ^ Levine, Nick (5 June 2017). "Royal Blood announce huge support act for UK arena tour". NME. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  3. ^ "Royal Blood Australian & New Zealand Tour 2018". Heavy. 20 July 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  4. ^ Schatz, Lake (4 December 2017). "Royal Blood announce 2018 US headlining tour". Consequence. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  5. ^ Trendell, Andrew (16 April 2021). "Royal Blood: 'Without sobriety, this album or this band wouldn't exist. It was all quite scary'". NME. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  6. ^ "Bringin' it Backwards: Interview with Royal Blood". American Songwriter. 11 May 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  7. ^ O'Toole, Lucy (25 May 2021). "Royal Blood: 'The first year I was sober, I kept it a secret. But now I feel a duty and responsibility to share my story". Hot Press. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  8. ^ Young, Alex (15 June 2017). "Queens of the Stone Age announce 2017 North American tour, with Royal Blood in support". Consequence. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  9. ^ Trendell, Andrew (23 June 2017). "Royal Blood: 'Playing with Queens Of The Stone Age will be like working under Gordon Ramsay'". NME. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  10. ^ Jones, Damian (6 November 2017). "Royal Blood and Wolf Alice to support Queens Of The Stone Age". NME. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  11. ^ Fletcher, Harry (24 November 2017). "Royal Blood interview: Touring with Queens of the Stone Age nearly killed us". Evening Standard. Retrieved 7 June 2022.
  12. ^ Trendell, Andrew (16 April 2021). "Royal Blood on working with Josh Homme: 'He's just like this big kid having fun'". NME. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  13. ^ a b Trendell, Andrew (24 September 2020). "Royal Blood tell us about 'Trouble's Coming' and their new album: 'We're seeing in colour for the first time'". NME. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  14. ^ Blistein, Jon (24 September 2020). "Royal Blood Bring Big Riffs to the Dancefloor on New Song 'Trouble's Coming'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  15. ^ Jones, Damian (17 September 2020). "Royal Blood share cryptic photo featuring vintage Ford vehicle". NME. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  16. ^ Richards, Will (21 September 2020). "Royal Blood to return with new single 'Trouble's Coming' this week". NME. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  17. ^ Childers, Chad (24 September 2020). "Royal Blood Reveal 'Trouble's Coming' Ahead of 2021 Album". Loudwire. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  18. ^ Richards, Will (23 October 2020). "Watch Royal Blood's dark and dangerous new video for 'Trouble's Coming'". NME. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  19. ^ Skinner, Tom (6 July 2021). "Royal Blood announce intimate UK tour for this summer". NME. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  20. ^ Ovens, Ruth (6 May 2021). "Reading's The Amazons announced as special guests on Royal Blood UK 2022 arena tour". Reading Post. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  21. ^ Richards, Will (28 November 2021). "Royal Blood to open new Swansea Arena with 2022 show". NME. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  22. ^ Moore, Sam (31 March 2022). "Royal Blood postpone UK and European tour dates after Mike Kerr tests positive for COVID-19". NME. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  23. ^ Lavin, Will (4 April 2022). "Royal Blood announce rescheduled UK tour dates". NME. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  24. ^ Childers, Chad (30 November 2021). "Royal Blood Announce 2022 North American Tour with Cleopatrick". Loudwire. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  25. ^ a b "Typhoons by Royal Blood reviews". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  26. ^ a b "Typhoons by Royal Blood Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  27. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Typhoons Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine". AllMusic. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  28. ^ Murray, Robin (30 April 2021). "Royal Blood – Typhoons". Clash. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  29. ^ Beaumont, Mark (30 April 2021). "Royal Blood find disco glitter amidst darkness and paranoia on Typhoons". Classic Rock. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  30. ^ Swann, Emma (29 April 2021). "Royal Blood – Typhoons". DIY. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  31. ^ Smyth, David (30 April 2021). "Royal Blood – Typhoon review: difficult third album? No chance". Evening Standard. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  32. ^ O'Connor, Roisin (29 April 2021). "Royal Blood review – Typhoons, plus Julia Stone – Sixty Summers". The Independent. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  33. ^ Ruskell, Nick (30 April 2021). "Album review: Royal Blood – Typhoons". Kerrang!. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  34. ^ Kelly, Tyler Damara (29 April 2021). "Typhoons is thunderous rock duo Royal Blood reckoning with change and winning". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  35. ^ Trendell, Andrew (29 April 2021). "Royal Blood – 'Typhoons' review: rock duo's dancefloor redemption". NME. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  36. ^ Spenceley, Haydon (19 May 2021). "Royal Blood: Typhoons (Warner) – review". Under the Radar. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  37. ^ Grunenberg, Kira (2 June 2021). "Review: 'Typhoons' by Royal Blood". American Songwriter. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  38. ^ Cheal, David (30 April 2021). "Royal Blood's Typhoons – infectiously danceable and crunchingly powerful". Financial Times. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  39. ^ Browne, Hannah (26 April 2021). "Album Review: Royal Blood – Typhoons". Gigwise. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  40. ^ Rodriguez, Juan Edgardo (30 April 2021). "Royal Blood: Typhoons". No Ripcord. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  41. ^ Parmenter, Jamie (28 April 2021). "Royal Blood: Typhoons – Album Review". Vinyl Chapters. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  42. ^ Sleator, Sonja (29 April 2021). "Album Review: Royal Blood – Typhoons". XS Noize. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  43. ^ Typhoons (booklet). Royal Blood. Warner Records. 2021. 654255.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
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  49. ^ "Czech Albums – Top 100". ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 18.Týden 2021 on the field besides the words "CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100" to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  50. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Royal Blood – Typhoons" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  51. ^ "Royal Blood: Typhoons" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
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  53. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Royal Blood – Typhoons" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
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  55. ^ "Official Irish Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
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  58. ^ a b "Oficjalna lista sprzedaży :: OLiS - Official Retail Sales Chart". OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 8 June 2022. Cite error: The named reference "poland" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
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  64. ^ "Royal Blood Chart History (Top Alternative Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  65. ^ "Royal Blood Chart History (Top Hard Rock Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  66. ^ "Royal Blood Chart History (Top Rock Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
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  68. ^ "British album certifications – Royal Blood – Typhoons". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 6 June 2022.