 
Swedish four piece Royal Republic caused a storm
when they released their debut album ‘We
Are The Royal’ back in 2010 due to their
garage rock sound which quickly saw them being
compared to the likes of The Hives and The Vines,
and now two years on Royal Republic are back with
their second studio album ‘Save The Nation’
and musically they have gone down a similar route
to their debut but this time around they have
gone down a more mature route when it comes to
the nature and theme of their songs.
The album opens with the title track ‘Save
The Nation’ a song which deals with leadership,
voting and more importantly saving the nation
as it says on the tin, musically the song is a
fast and furious affair which becomes instantly
accessible due to this, the guitar riffs are full
on whilst the basslines feature more bounce than
that bouncy castle you loved as a kid, whilst
the lyrics are quirkily written with front man
Adam Grahn delivering them at such a pace that
you can’t help but be hooked within seconds.
‘You Ain’t Nobody (Till Somebody Hates
You’ is vocally and instrumentally an repeative
track but there is something about the track that
keeps you hanging on until the end and when you
get to the end of the track it is worth it as
Grahn up’s his game and lets rip with a
set of shouty vocals which sound very much like
Marilyn Manson during his early days.
‘Everybody Wants To Be an Astronaut’
is a great little track which opens up with a
set of whistling and within moments the song goes
full on with constant marching band style drumming,
bouncy riffs and a set of vocals which grab your
attention from the start, lyrically the song takes
a dig at human nature how we are never happy with
what we have and what we do and how we always
want more.
‘Make Love Not War (If You Have To)’
is easily the stand out track on the album and
one that I can see people coming back to listen
to time and time again as the song is just a short
mad burst of energy where Royal Republic unleash
their punk energy with Grahn singing “They
say “make love not war! But I say if you
have to make war, make sure to make time to make
love in-between”.
The punk rock energy returns with ‘Punch
Drunk Love’ a song which in places reminds
me of the turbo charged My Chemical Romance song
‘Planetary (Go!)’, and in other places
reminds me of The Hives but that might just be
because they are fellow punks from Sweden.
The album closes with the utter bonkers ‘This
Means Way’, the song is a 54 second shouty
affair where Royal Republic do their best to make
as much noise as they can and they happen to succeed.
When it comes to releasing a second album a lot
of bands tend to struggle but Royal Republic have
gone and put out yet another solid sounding album
as ‘Save The Nation’ is an extremely
fast, energetic album which is crammed full of
songs that are extremely listenable and the best
thing is that ‘Save The Nation’ sounds
like an album which was created to be played live
and I can already picture the carnage that is
going to be caused when Royal Republic play these
songs live to the English crowd in November.
4/5
Review by Trigger
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