Royel Otis - hickey

A few years ago, the elements that form the foundations of Royel Otis’ second album ‘hickey’ might have been considered cringe. College-rock guitar, bedroom-pop production, and distinctly 80s synth-pop beats amalgamate into a sophomore album that is authentic in its adoption of music tropes that, let’s be honest, are just super fun.

Opener ‘I hate this tune’ sets the tone, as fuzzy drums overlaid by jangly guitar and nonchalant dual vocal get the blood pumping and toes tapping. ‘moody’ swaps out sun-soaked sound for a scrubbed acoustic guitar, shifting from Bondi to Britpop with nonchalant ease. ‘good times’ is built for a festival sunset slot, before ‘dancing with myself’ swerves into joyful 2010s indie-pop, rejuvenating the funky yet just-edgy-enough sounds of Tame Impala and MGMT for a new age.

It's not all Sydney sunshine and big waves, though, with ‘shut up’ evoking the darker synth sounds of post-punk, even if the clap-track does soften up the edges. Elsewhere, ‘torn jeans’ brings down the tempo with warped guitar and sandy guitar, a sound that continues in falsetto-laden bop ‘come on home’. The energy is dialled straight back to eleven with instrumental track ‘who’s your boyfriend?’, conjuring any number of images of LA teens driving along the West Coast in a 1960s convertible but, somehow, not in a cliché way.

This is an album that doubles down on all the things that make Royel Otis so adored, whilst also warping the boundaries that little bit further and defining themselves that little more clearly. It’s still two lads making music for the fun of it, most likely on a bedroom floor, but with just enough added sparkle to send them stratospheric. ‘hickey’ is just good old-fashioned fun music, and we could all use some of that right now, eh?