ALBUM REVIEW: LoveCop – Royal Republic
Summer 2024 has officially arrived – three months of long nights, beer gardens, music festivals and (hopefully) plenty of sun await. The only thing that makes such a period better is when a band brings out an album that perfectly befits the season; Swedish disco rockers ROYAL REPUBLIC are the masters at such an art. For almost 20 years the quartet of Adam Grahn, Hannes Irengård, Jonas Almén and Per Andreasson have been shimmying their way through their career with an electric live show, the sharpest suits since ZZ TOP and an ever-growing arsenal of out-and-out bangers, which increases on Friday 7th June with the release of their sixth album LoveCop.
It’s actually unfair at how many brilliant numbers ROYAL REPUBLIC have written over their time together, and it takes less than a minute for that number to go up by one – because as Intro My House closes having given us a sultry saxophone and piano welcome, the segueing song – this time just My House – comes charging through like the sort of number you’d have soundtracking a Miami Vice car chase, driven by a huge riff and backed with a pulsating 80s techno beat.
The hurtling tempo drops to a strut with the title track, a DIRE STRAITS-esque guitar tone the foundation for a sunset walk on the beach. Wow! Wow! Wow! is one of those songs that only ROYAL REPUBLIC could have got away with – if BON JOVI had done the title of the song using a voicebox, it would have been cringey; here it’s a stroke of genius as the track goes on a wild rollercoaster of genres from glam to pop to a quiet mid-section and then back to a gorgeous saxophone solo. It’s a ride, but one that makes sense in a grand context.
If it wasn’t clear already, ROYAL REPUBLIC are incredibly adept at delivering rock music in a multitude of its forms and at a high level to boot. Freakshow channels ALICE COOPER and ARTHUR BROWN with its vaudevillian storytelling and ludicrously camp shock rock value, Lazerlove has touches of BLUE ÖYSTER CULT and GHOST within its graceful sway and Grahn’s high-end vocals and Boots is just over two-and-a-half minutes of a band who sound like they’ve been having the time of their lives for the past half a century, let alone since their 2007 beginnings.
They may have even left the best until last – Sha-La-La-Lady is the epitome of the ‘disco rock’ tag that ROYAL REPUBLIC have garnered, with a joyous funk guitar line that evokes the likes of Thriller-era MICHAEL JACKSON, STEVIE WONDER, EARTH, WIND AND FIRE and, specifically, Disco Inferno by THE TRAMMPS at varying points. It’s a brilliant way to finish the album and, with the entire thing clocking in at just 35 minutes, only those with the hardest of hearts wouldn’t immediately press play on it again.
ROYAL REPUBLIC are one of those bands who it is impossible to hate – forever bouncy and uplifting, quite how they’ve not managed to lose any sort of momentum is anybody’s guess, yet here we are on album #6 and LoveCop is another home run. If you’re not dancing by the end, you’ve got little to no soul.
Rating: 8/10
LoveCop is out now via Odyssey Music.
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