Album review: The Royal Beggars – Falling To New Heights.

The Royal Beggars might currently be one of those ‘best kept secrets’ of the UK underground sleaze scene, but that’s definitely set to change with their long-awaited full-length debut “Falling To New Heights”.

Formed in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2018, and releasing their debut EP “Tales From Disgraceland” the same year, they returned two years later with the six-track mini-album “Wounded Hearts and Bloodstained Souls”, featuring cover art from none other than legendary Dogs D’amour frontman and renowned bar-stool balladeer Tyla J. Pallas. And that Dogs D’amour link follows through in “Falling…“, too; sleazy, trashy, and gritty, with a true old-school rock n’ roll heart reminiscent of the best of The Stones, The Dogs, early Quireboys, seventies Bowie, and Hanoi Rocks.

But there’s a rootsy, Country and Americana twist that evokes Waylon Jennings and David Allen Coe, and lashings of alt-pop and US radio driving-friendly rock like first single ‘Falling From Grace’, the gorgeous duet of ‘Ain’t That Pretty’ (featuring the Swedish singer/songwriter Maja Van Hogerlinden Olausson), and the similarly slower ‘Hellbound’ – think Jayhawks and Hootie and the Blowfish – through the heartfelt acoustic balladeering of ‘Wasting My Time Away’, to the more general bags of rip-roaring Stonesy rock n’ roll in tracks like album opener ‘Unholy Roller’, ‘Why Don’t You Want Me Too’, and the harmonica-soaked closer ‘Blood and Whiskey’.

“Falling To New Heights” is ten tales of heartbreak and hard liquor dripping in honesty and proper storytelling; when singer David Roobert growls ‘I spent my last dime at the liquor store’ because he ‘can’t remember how it feels to be in love’, you know he’s been there too. It’s absolutely one of those records that knows you’ve had a rough time lately, gently puts its arm around you, and grabs a bottle of whiskey and some smokes on the way. You know the sort; the kind of album you put on to remind yourself that you’re not alone. It’s an absolute belter of a rock n’ roll record.

The Royal Beggars – “Falling To New Heights”

1. Unholy Roller
2. Sun Goes Down
3. Fallin’ From Grace
4. Ain’t That Pretty
5. Hellbound
6. Villains n’ Thieves
7. Why Don’t You Want Me Too?
8. Determined On Self-Termination
9. Wasting My Time Away
10. Blood And Whiskey