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Photo: Georges Antoni

Royel Otis, the dynamic Australian duo comprised of friends Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic, have gifted listeners with their debut studio album PRATTS & PAIN. A treasure trove of aggressively fun and lovable tracks that perfectly slipstream into summer, the pair have solidified a truly unique sonic identity as they continue to explore indie rock through honest storytelling and genuine collaboration.

If you don’t know Royel Otis for their captivating, upbeat, haunting, and truly whimsical tracks like “Sofa King” and “Velvet,” you might recognize the pair for their recent viral cover of The Cranberries' “Linger” or their explosive cover of Sophie Ellis-Bextor's “Murder On The Dance Floor,'' which has been making waves around the world. The band, reigning from Sydney, was named one of 25 artists to watch this year by the Grammys and just finished a successful UK/EU headlining tour. Now, if you catch this article in time, the band is about to head off on a US tour to share their immense talent with fans, with stops at festivals and venues across the nation throughout May. 

Bottling the essence of underground garage concerts, warm afternoons with windows down on the freeway, and hot skin after days spent basking in the sun, you’ll immediately want to add songs like “Adored,” “Fried Rice,” and “Daisy Chain” to all the summer playlists in your horizon. One standout track, “Foam” has an extremely catchy chorus that hides the aggressive threat, "Slow down and keep my name out of your mouth / I could hold you a lot to the ground / Just to hear the sound / Of you crying” behind an earworm of a rhyme and head bobbing beat."

This is an album you’ll want to listen to all the way through, a few times, to catch every yelled-out lyric and ad-lib, especially for the often silly and unexpected admissions or expressions. Speaking of a shift in their writing and recording process, Royel Otis shared, “We just went like, ‘Fuck it. Let’s just play this. If we fuck this bit up, just keep playing and leave it in there, chuck this in there, shout about whatever, then we’ll make up lyrics that mean something afterwards. And they don’t have to be that poetic. Just have fun with it,”

Slow, reflective moments like “Molly” divert from Royel Otis’ typical sound, favoring cyclic, drawling, and echoing lines that paint a dark picture of sadness and maybe even isolation. With lyrics like “Huff a cup of the old fumes, maybe / I barely got a taste of the paint / Sippin’ down what cures you lately,” listeners will experience a depth of profound honesty and emotion often irreplicable on their more uptempo offerings.

PRATTS & PAIN isn’t just an album; it’s an assertion, a declaration of artistic identity that promises great things from the duo. It’s a must-listen for anyone eager to experience the next wave of indie rock, infected with a spirit of adventure that can only come from artists as authentic as Royel Otis.

Listen to PRATTS & PAIN below: