Royel Otis /// Pratts & Pain

By Zack Glassell

Background: The boys of Byron Bay are back with their first full-length album Pratts & Pain. Formed in 2019, they gifted the world Campus, their first EP back in October of 2021 (Wikipedia). It was an impressive first outing for the band, especially with the inclusion of tracks like “Without U”, Days in the Dark”, and “Never Been More Sure”. Then in August of 2022, the band released Bar & Grill, their second EP (Wikipedia). With standouts like “Oysters In My Pocket”, “Bull Breed”, and “Warm Nights”, I wholeheartedly admit that I absolutely adore Bar & Grill in every way. I consider it one of my all-time favorite records. In March 2023, Sofa Kings, their third EP, came out (Wikipedia). While it’s not a bad album by any means, I was not impressed by some of the singles on the record, notably “Sofa King” and “Kool Aid”. However, the spots in the record I enjoy, like “Razor Teeth” and “I Wanna Dance With You”, are such sweet listens and are among some of the best tracks the duo has made. Leading up to Pratts & Pain, the band released multiple singles to tease the new sound they were aiming for. “Adored”, released in July 2023, is an absolute romp that, for many months, acted as an ambassador for the album. It represents the band’s foray into a confident, fast-paced rhythm imbued in their music. “Fried Rice”, released October 2023, kept up this same speed while also cranking up the volume, and showcased a passionate vocal performance from lead singer Otis. “Heading For The Door”, dropped December 2023, loosened up a bit and is instead some beautiful ear candy with an insanely lovely melody that gets stuck in your head for all the right reasons. “Velvet”, released in January 2024, is a joyful and exciting song that could get a whole piano pub singing and jamming to it. The last album single “Foam”, released in February 2024, is a little more laid back however, with its intense lyrics and groovy bass guitar taking control.

General Impression: Due to the impressive singles leading up to its release, I was looking forward to seeing what the boys had cooking for us with this record. Now that it’s here, I can confidently say that Pratts & Pain by Royel Otis did not disappoint. You can feel the duo’s commitment and confidence coming through on this one more than their other outings. While their previous records came forward with a mix of “indie pop” and “surf rock”, this record feels very “jangle pop” and “punk rock” to me more than anything. It’s not afraid to have fun and be a little wild, and I can’t help but admire that.

Instrumentation: The instrumentation is crazy good on “Fried Rice”. The bass steals the show on “Foam”. “Sonic Blue” has instrumentation that sounds very inspired and is ear candy to listen to, believe me. The melody that plays throughout “Heading For The Door” is so pretty and so lovely. The electronic beats mixed with the instruments work together to craft a beautiful track that gets me feeling both excited and happy every time it plays. My favorite part of “Molly” is the chorus with the short but saddening guitar stringing that plays toward the end of it. I definitely wouldn’t call it a happy song. I love “Daisy Chain”, especially the drumming heard during the singing. It is dopamine. The entire instrumentation sounds inspired and pleasant, but the drumming steals this one. The instrumentation on “Sofa King”, however, doesn’t work for me. The instrumental that drops in after each line with the word “fucking” sounds like it’s trying to force feelings on the listener, but it doesn’t do anything for me. The instrumentation of “Glory to Glory” is simple yet so effective, it’s just so good. The way it goes out with the riffing in the cadence is a great note to end on. The guitar playing steals the stage in the last song “Big Ciggie”.

Vocals: For “Adored”, the singing is low-key, but then he goes high with it for the chorus. I like the pause in the singing in the first verse of “Fried Rice”: “They’re never gonna let me leave…..with you.” They go so hard with that chorus too. The vocalists sound so passionate. I believe Royel does most of the singing on “Sonic Blue”, and he does a great job! Royel has a lovely singing voice, it is beautiful really. I believe this track is deserving of love for that alone, especially when his singing is paired with the lovely lyrics. The singing by Otis in “Heading For The Door” is beautiful. The feels are in that one, I can feel it. He does a decent job of singing on “IHYSM”, especially in the chorus. His vocal work in “Daisy Chain”, however, is super beautiful and pleasant to listen to. The performance in “Sofa King” is alright, but the pauses taken in some of the lines are so unnecessary. I believe the song would be genuinely better without them. They said in an interview with KROQ that they were excited for people to hear “Glory to Glory”, and I understand why (KROQ). It is really good. They sound so happy singing together in it, and the short bit of chanting is so lovely. You can hear some more great singing from Royel on “Big Ciggie”. Matched with Otis’s singing during the refrain, I can’t help but sing and groove along with them.

Meaningfulness of the Lyrics: In “Adored”, the lyrics are interesting, but the feel of the words, especially the line in the refrain “In my head,” is what sticks out the most during a listen.

The lyrics in “Fried Rice” go hard: “The cuck in the corner,” Okay whoa, and “Now come on Eileen” is a cool reference. The words are honest and even a little witty. On “Foam”, I found the lyrics to be super meaningful. I thought the song at first was about getting your mouth washed out with soap, but then I read the lyrics themselves along with the Genius, and now I think it is about them wanting to wash an annoying fan’s mouth out (Genius). That fan must have really pissed them off because it almost sounds threatening, I love it! When reading the lyrics of “Sonic Blue”, I can tell it’s Royel’s song. With the help of our lord and savior Genius.com, it’s about a straight-edge girl he was seeing that made Royel look at himself in the mirror. It made sense for him to sing it instead of Otis.

One of the lyrics of “Daisy Chain” is “It’s not ogre”, which I’m pretty sure is a Shrek reference. Nicely done. I don’t like the f-bomb during the chorus of “Sofa King”, it feels so out of place and doesn’t make me feel anything. Besides that line, the other lyrics in this song are well written: “I need my legs to influence the common sense not fitting in my mind.” “Always Always” is a letter to someone you can’t help but think about. The last song “Big Ciggie” is a fun listen, but the lyrics suggest that the meaning of this song is not so fun: “He died thinking too much of you.” According to Genius, Royel said it’s about being honest about the dead people at funerals (Genius). Knowing that now, that meaning fits the tone of the song perfectly.

Originality: “Adored” comes in with some sick energy. With it being the first single for the record, it sets up the rest of the album’s confidence and commitment. It sounds wild and out there while also keeping a smooth rhythm. “Fried Rice” keeps that same energy but gets louder. I love the energy present on the album in general, it makes me feel good. This record is a new sound for the band and I dig it. “Foam” is a bit more laid back, but the consistent rhythm and groove work in its favor. I’m a big fan of the super lowkey, yet upbeat verse that plays right after the chorus on “Sonic Blue”. The semi-build-up pacing on “Heading For The Door” leads into a song that sounds like only chorus, no verse. Every aspect of it is a hook. “Velvet” sounds like nothing they’ve done before. It’s like they’re at a pub with a piano man and they got the whole bar singing and jamming. “IHYSM” keeps that steadfast pacing with its beats. “Molly” sounds a little ominous and despondent, even using some echo in the singing. Maybe if I was heading to something serious, like an event where fighting might start, this would hype me up for that. I don’t understand why they put “Sofa King” on the record. I don’t like it. I get that it is their most popular song, and honestly, when I listen to it, I can tell that it’s really not a bad song, but it belongs on Sofa Kings. After watching an interview they did with Milky back in October of 2021 when they first released Campus, they said there was a song they were originally going to put on the record called “Always”, but it needed more time in the oven. I started to speculate that the song “Always Always” on Pratts & Pain is actually that same song. My evidence for this, besides the Milky interview and the similar naming, was that every time it came on when I wasn’t listening solely to P&P, I couldn’t tell if it was a song off P&P or Campus. It has that same Campus sound. I decided to direct message the guitarist himself, Royel Maddell, to ask if my speculation was correct, and he confirmed my speculation (Royel Maddell)! Even though it was meant for Campus, the feel of the song still fits Pratts & Pain pretty well. It makes me think of walking on the beach in the evening. You could end the day with this song, listening to it in the newly formed dark by the campfire. The last song on the album, “Big Ciggie”, sounds so punk,

and they’re having so much fun with it. If you just want a fun-as-hell song to listen to with your buddies, it’s this one. It’s a very high note to end the record on.

Quality of the Performances: There are songs on this record, like “Fried Rice”, where the instrumentation comes through very confidently and effectively. Other songs have specific instruments that steal the show, like the guitar on “Molly” and the drumming on “Daisy Chain”. As for the singing, there’s so much passion and excitement coming through on songs like “Fried Rice”, “Heading For The Door”, “Daisy Chain”, “Velvet”, and “Big Ciggie”. The beautiful vocal performances by Royel in “Sonic Blue” and “Big Ciggie” have me dying to hear more of him in future projects. The overall energy in the performances on this record is unlike anything the boys have put out before.

Shower Review: Royel Maddell, guitarist for the band, said in an interview with DIFFUS that he likes listening to music in the shower because “you can’t really hear what’s going on.” He also implied that hearing music in this way is one of his big musical inspirations (DIFFUS). So I decided to try this myself with his album! I wrote my notes on paper using the dry shower wall. This, come to find out, was not the best idea. I, of course, started with “Adored” where I could hear the guitaring and singing for sure, and I could understand when they would sing “My head” in the chorus. The rest of it sounded like a bunch of jumbled drumming and guitaring. “Fried Rice” I could hear and understand fairly well, definitely in large part due to the increase in loudness this one brings forth. “Foam”, while not explicitly mentioning showering, does talk about washing, so a fitting shower song in that regard. I could hear the chorus fine, as well as other bits and pieces of the singing. If I bumped up my volume a bit more, “Foam” would absolutely be a great shower listen. I loved listening to “Sonic Blue” in the shower. Oddly enough, I find the more lowkey songs like this and “Foam” to be great shower songs. Unfortunately, it was at this point in the album when my note paper started absorbing the condensation and vapor from the shower, so writing became almost impossible. I also realized at this point that I was going to be listening to a 40-minute album in the shower where the hot water is limited. Needless to say, if I were to continue forth with the experiment, not only would I be unable to take notes, but I would become the worst enemy of anyone using the same hot water source as me around that time.

Conclusion: Pratts & Pain is an impressive and solid first full LP from these blokes over in Sydney. “Heading For The Door” is my favorite song off the record. Other standouts include “Sonic Blue”, “Fried Rice”, “Glory to Glory”, “Foam”, and “Daisy Chain”. If you haven’t listened to much of this band yet, and want a good place to jump in, I’d say this wouldn’t be a bad record to start with.

Rated Nine out of Ten

Outside sources:

https://youtu.be/iakFYY2OxJo?si=DF9KQYicARBXFNLG https://youtu.be/SXkjZL6d2mY?si=z0i17xsmwuasXoH4

https://youtu.be/ITmdKKB8vrg?si=szwxjifKttgDOcQ9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royel_Otis https://genius.com/albums/Royel-otis/Pratts-pain