Incredibly polished and sitting very much on the pop side of rock.
Royseven is a six piece band from Dublin, Ireland who has had success since their 2006 debut album ´The Art of Insincerity´ in their homeland and elsewhere in Europe. For example, the first single from the album, ´Older´ went into the Irish single chart at number 6. Interestingly with this track record, their latest album, ´You Say, We Say´, is the band´s first UK release.
The album was created in a nine month period with an enormous amount of songs written in preparation. Selection was based on how they sounded when they played live inevitably leading to re-writing on the fly. As a result, the album is incredibly polished and sitting very much on the pop side of rock. The instrumentation is set so that the keyboards are much more upfront than that of a rock band. Also, the singer, Paul Walsh, has a pop-based vocal approach with a very commercial tinge. The song subjects are mature though, notably on ´Channel 103 On My TV´ which is about TV evangelism and ´Walls´ about someone coming to terms with a failed relationship. The songs roll into one another and the band clearly have a very defined sound; faultless in its production but as a result lacks the life or death feel of a less well played rock album.
My favourite track is the last one, ´We March On´ which is more stripped back piece at first than the rest of the album and is all the better for it. The crashing drum and keyboard second verse inevitably comes in but the track really benefits from a bit of light and shade.
Royseven do have a big sound though and would clearly map well to festivals; the sound and music will appeal to a wider audience than the Fireworks & Rocktopia readership and I wish them well.
Of special note, is the video for the track “We Should Be Lovers” which allows the viewer to decide which ending they would like to see. This and their song ´Up´ which is being used for Volkswagen's new compact car advert show that Royseven are very much on top of their marketing!
Rob McKenzie
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