Best Albums of 2021: Royal Blood on Typhoons

29 December 2021, 12:00 | Updated: 31 December 2021, 15:23

Royal Blood in 2021: Ben Thatcher and Mike Kerr. Picture: Warner Bros/Press

Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher take Radio X's John Kennedy through their acclaimed third album.

Listen to the Royal Blood track-by-track on Global Player here

Royal Blood returned in 2021. It's been four long years since Mike Kerr and Ben Thatcher released How Did We Get So Dark? ...And a lot has happened since then.

The Brighton duo have regrouped and re-thought their approach to songwriting with the enforced hiatus from live performing that the pandemic has brought.

Royal Blood - Boilermaker (Live in Session)

Listen to the Royal Blood track-by-track on Global Player here

Their third album Typhoons sees Kerr and Thatcher try on new sounds and approaches. "We enjoy taking risks," says Ben to those people who may have wanted more of the same. "It's more enjoyable for everyone."

The pair sat down with Radio X's John Kennedy to go through Typhoons track by track and you can watch the entire discussion here, or listen to the whole show and album via Radio X on Global Player.

Listen to the Record Of The Year 2021 Live Playlist on Global Player

Royal Blood - Trouble's Coming (Official Video)

Kerr honestly looks at how sobriety has transformed his life, with songs like Boilermaker giving an insight into why he took the decision to turn his life around. "A Boilermaker is a horrible, horrible drink," he tells John. "It's a shot of whiskey in a beer. There was a point in my life where I found myself drinking them. When you're drinking them, you know things are going wrong. It was the ugly side of me."

Royal Blood - Typhoons (Official Video)

The duo also discuss their "Frankenstein" technique of collaborative song-writing, with the revelations that drummer Ben has "eight albums"-worth of material. He admits: "They're sparks of ideas, like I'm going to write a new theme for Star Wars: A New Hope.

"It's amazing how much better you get at recording and songwriting through just messing about and enjoying yourself. You get sparks of something that can really inspire a song, a riff or a beat. If you take away my stupid vocals and lyrics, there's a really cool riff or whatever... which we can use."

"I'm trying to convince him to release these songs," his bandmate reveals. "But he's still not sure."