Typhoons

The Artist

Royal Blood are a two-piece rock band from Brighton, England, formed in 2011 by bassist and vocalist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher. What makes them remarkable is the sheer enormity of sound they generate as a duo — Kerr runs his bass through a complex rig of guitar amplifiers and effects pedals, producing a tone thick enough to fill the space most bands would reserve for a guitarist. Their self-titled 2014 debut arrived like a thunderclap, landing at number one in the UK and drawing instant comparisons to Led Zeppelin and Queens of the Stone Age. Typhoons, their third album, marks a decisive shift in direction, finding the band trading some of their garage-rock density for something far more groove-oriented and danceable.

The Album

Typhoons was recorded primarily in Los Angeles and released in April 2021, produced by the band alongside longtime collaborator Tom Dalgety and mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent. The album arrived after a period of significant personal turbulence for Mike Kerr, who has spoken openly about getting sober — an experience that fed directly into the record's surprisingly euphoric, even celebratory energy. Where earlier Royal Blood records leaned into brooding heaviness, Typhoons borrows from disco, funk, and post-punk, with Kerr citing Giorgio Moroder and Daft Punk as touchstones alongside the band's usual hard rock DNA. The result is a record about addiction, liberation, and the strange lightness that follows darkness.

Listen For

The Groove Machine. From the opening title track onward, the rhythm section locks into a propulsive, almost motorik pulse that owes as much to disco as it does to rock. Notice how Ben Thatcher's drumming drives the album forward with a relentless, dance-floor urgency rather than the thunderous fills of earlier records.

Kerr's Bass Tone. Listen closely to how Mike Kerr's bass-through-guitar-amp setup creates a sound that simultaneously occupies the low-end and mid-range — on "Limbo" and "Boilermaker," it practically vibrates out of the speakers like a full guitar band. The absence of a second musician becomes almost impossible to believe.

Dynamic Contrast. The album does its best work when it lets songs breathe — "Crying Out" pulls back into something almost tender before the chorus crashes back in. Pay attention to how the band uses space and restraint to make the heavy moments hit harder.

Vocal Performance. Kerr's voice carries the emotional weight of the record, particularly on "Either You Want It" and "All We Have Is Now," where he pushes into a raw, pleading register that cuts through the maximalist production. His delivery makes the themes of longing and recovery feel visceral rather than abstract.

Lyrical Themes. The album is laced with the language of addiction, escape, and hard-won clarity — "Typhoons" sets the tone with its imagery of being overwhelmed and swept away, while "Hold On" and "Who Needs Friends" touch on isolation and the cost of self-destruction. Listen for how the upbeat sonics often sit in deliberate tension with the darker lyrical content underneath.