Given how much I loved Royal Headache’s first album, I put off actually listening to their follow-up for nearly six months, so scared was I that it would break the spell. A tad drastic perhaps, but the ‘difficult second album’ syndrome (perhaps we should rephrase that as ‘difficult second RECORD’ in view of some bands who barely make it through an EP before the good feeling implodes?) has burned me so many times in recent years. Naturally this curse always hits song-based pop/rock groups hardest, especially if they attain a certain level of hype or popularity, and as such, the rough, impassioned energy of RH’s debut seemed to leave the gates so wide open for a bout of “lost in the big studio / short of material / daunted by expectation = will this do?” ignominy, I almost couldn’t face it.

Finally getting round to it a month or so before compiling this list, I hit play with a heavy heart, but breathed an instant sigh of relief when the frantic, mid-fi strumming of opening track ‘My Own Fantasy’ hit. Sounds like you dodged the bullet, guys. ‘High’ may not recapture the lightning-in-a-bottle brilliance of the group’s debut, but it’s a solid follow-up, and under the circumstances, that’s as much as we really could have asked for.

More than anything, I get the feeling that this record represents RH’s vocalist, the questionably named Shogun, taking the reins as the band’s natural leader, but, on reflection, maybe that’s not such a bad thing. One of the things that made their debut stand out was the fact that he is one of the few remaining singers in an indie/punk/whatever band prepared to step outside the mumbling/monotone comfort zone and, as we say in the biz, ‘give it his all’, cutting the crap and aiming straight for Otis/Sam & Dave style perfection. That he doesn’t get within a million miles of the cheap seats of their hallowed ballpark, he’d no doubt be the first to admit, but it’s nonetheless exhilarating to hear him try, belting it out like a youthful, half-cut Bob Pollard in a “falling flat on his face and get up for more” type manner that will forever sound good when set against a backdrop of up-tempo, major chord punk rock.

It’s fair to say that there’s a fair chunk of stuff here that doesn’t quite work, with comparatively extended song times, slower tempos and questionable signifiers of ‘epicness’ all boding poorly for the future, and leading to a few tracks I’ll be happier skipping over on repeat listens. But then, late in the album, ‘Carolina’ crashes in and succeeds in actually melding those very elements into a convincing piece of Teenage Fanclub-level greatness (albeit Teenage Fanclub with a bellowing Pollard wannabe on the mic), so hey – maybe there’s water in the well yet.

It’s also fair to say that Royal Headache still sound quite a lot like The Jam in places – a tendency that oddly becomes even more noticeable as their sound begins to, uh, ‘expand’. But, hopefully I’ve now reached the stage in my life where I’m man enough to say “you know what? I really like The Jam” without shame, and in fact, I guess if you were to imagine Weller & co letting their soul-boy side run free and laying down some high energy love songs n’ shit in comparatively lo-fi conditions, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what makes ‘High’ worth a listen, despite its faults.

In-between a few slightly flat, over-cooked numbers, the best cuts here – in particular, I’d put a big shiny arrow next to ‘Need You’ – definitely pass the acid test for second album material with flying colours. That being: if I were to hear them on the radio whilst doing the washing up and had no prior knowledge of the band, I’d still be liable to kick over the chairs, jump around in a fir of ill-coordinated joy, and declare it dancing time. I know #1 to #16’s a bit of a tough fall, but second album for a band like this is always a tough call, so props to Royal Headache – they’ve made it out the other side with road ahead and the motor still running.

Listen & buy digital from the band, or check your local dealers for a hard copy.

Labels: best of 2015, Royal Headache