If there’s a band currently having as much fun as Royel Otis, we’re yet to find them. Australian duo Royel Madden and Otis Pavlovic have built a name for themselves with lively guitar-pop that never tries to take itself too seriously, and now they’ve swapped Sydney for south London to become one of the few non-UK acts to work with in-demand producer Dan Carey [Wet Leg, Foals]. The result, their debut album ‘Pratts & Pain’, is every bit the ray of sunshine we’ve come to expect from the pair behind the infectious, Passion Pit-like hit ‘Oysters In My Pocket’.
On the surface, little has changed within their sound. Here, Pavlovic’s vocals are as breezy as ever, while Madden’s fluid bass grooves keep everything flowing. Standout ‘Sonic Blue’ is as catchy as anything the NME 100 graduates have put out before. Yet dig beneath the album’s surface – the brief shrieks of distortion in ‘Adored’; the ramshackle piano keeping rhythm in ‘Velvet’ – and you can see the pair pushing beyond their comfort zone.
Some of these efforts are more obvious than others. “For now we’ll stay awake / But by now it’s all the same,” sings Pavlovic on ‘Molly’, which paints entire days going by in a drug-sludged haze. There’s nothing else on the album like it, but other tracks blend old and new in subtler ways. ‘Fried Rice’ is an uplifting indie anthem, but its crescendos and lyrics (“You ain’t never gonna let me leave”) are achingly pretty, and the song is arguably Royel Otis’ very best to date.
There’s a sense of adventure to the whole album – ‘Foam’ takes a leaf from MGMT’s ‘Congratulations’-era psychedelic pop, while the more guitar-driven ‘Daisy Chain’ sounds closer to Dinosaur Jr. Yet the duo test these waters without losing the sense of fun they started with. ‘Big Ciggie’ depicts dramatic car-crash deaths, but it does so in remarkably upbeat fashion while Carey’s 11-year-old nephew plays the drums in the background.
Though ‘Pratts & Pain’ will launch in the middle of a dreary February, Royel Otis may have to wait a few months for their achievement to be properly recognised. This is an album destined for festival season greatness – for cool-breeze drives, warm summer parties, and late-night singalongs.
Back home in Sydney, where temperatures will hit a balmy 26° this month, Royel Otis are already embracing that carefree mindset. But when sunny days start to reach the rest of the world again, it’s easy to imagine the band finally hitting the mainstream with this sublime debut.
