Combining sunkissed instrumentation with a laissez-faire attitude, it’s been a big twelve months for Australian duo Royel Otis, finding fans from Bondi to Birmingham with their infectious indie anthems. Following on from their viral cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s ‘Murder on The Dancefloor’ that went stratospheric across TikTok and Instagram late last month, their first full-length album ‘PRATTS & PAIN’ comes at a time where there is a considerable amount of hype around the two musicians that hail from Sydney’s iconic eastern beaches. With a sold-out Australian tour on the horizon, alongside trips to North America and Europe in the summer, the duo, made up of Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic stretch their sonic palette to new heights on ‘PRATTS & PAIN’. Across fourteen tracks, the notoriously laid-back yet infectiously fun pairing swing between hazy psychedelia, pop-inspired indie and even hints of dreary stoner rock, never confining themselves to just one lane. Entrusting the help of indie super-producer Dan Carey (Fontaines DC, Wet Leg) to smoothen the edges, ‘PRATTS & PAIN’ may just be one of the most enjoyable indie records of the year, as Maddell and Pavlovic embrace their quirks and idiosyncrasies in the pursuit of showing the world that there is still a place for guitar-driven pop.
While it would be easy for other bands to get lost in this loose and sometimes chaotic songwriting formula that Royel Otis have become known to follow, ‘PRATTS & PAIN’ is defined by two happy-go-lucky songwriters that would rather their music have a positive tint to it, embracing the traits that make the world weird and wonderful, a characteristic that seems to be a dying breed within the realms of the current state of indie-rock. Tracks like ‘Velvet’ serve as a guideline for the eccentric nature of Royel Otis, as chanting vocals of ‘My baby says I’m just a lover / My baby needs me more than others’ are shrieked over a stomping energy that recalls David Byrne’s Talking Heads. Meanwhile, the aptly named ‘Fried Rice’ takes itself about as seriously as the name suggests yet its glimmering guitar lines paired with Pavlovic’s hazy vocals are undeniably gorgeous. While the sillier numbers are enjoyable and are everything fans have come to love about the unconventional duo, the real strength of ‘PRATTS & PAIN’ are the songs that wear their sincerity and direct nature on their sleeve. One of the centrepieces of ‘PRATTS & PAIN’ and the title track of the bands EP they released in 2023, ‘Sofa King’ is a gorgeous, unrequited lovesong that revolves around a swinging acoustic guitar riff that perfectly complements Pavlovic’s lush vocal performance. Production wise, Pavlovic’s vocals are treated as an everchanging instrument, as the tone, richness and texture placed on the frontman’s vocals are altered throughout ‘PRATTS & PAIN’, supplementing Maddell’s instrumentation. On the glittering ‘Foam’, Pavlovic’s vocals are buried underneath a pulsating drum rhythm, while on the tender slow-burner ‘Always Always’ they find themselves drenched in reverb, really helping to flaunt how unique of a vocalist Pavlovic is.
Elsewhere on the record, ‘Molly’ is an unsettling and deeply atmospheric slow jam that features a haunting string arrangement and unnerving tambourine slaps while ‘Heading For The Door’ is filled to the brim with sparkling synths and a moody guitar line that recalls the golden age of American indie. However, closer ‘Big Ciggie’ may just provide ‘PRATTS & PAIN’s biggest highlight, as Dan Carey’s 11-year-old nephew Archie appears on the drums, providing the backdrop to a chaotic finale filled with instrumentation that references everything from Steely Dan to Parquet Courts. While some of Royel Otis’ contemporaries may have chosen a safer, ballad-like number for the closing track of their debut album, the swashbuckling movie-credit outro is exactly what we’ve come to expect from the outlandish Australian duo.
As the album fades out, the mix allows us to hear laughter in the studio’s foreground, once again reminding us that the pursuit of Royel Otis will always be centred around two friends having fun and making the type of music they want to make. As the band continues to reach new listeners and climb up festival lineups, one thing is for certain.
They’re going to do it their way.
Words by Romesh Cruse