Royal & The Serpent
Rat Trap III
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This is the third instalment in the Rat Trap series (you can read about The Rat Trap I & II here). So far, it’s turned out to be a well-crafted concept, with the blueprint and the burn each giving two stunning tracks each. Rat Trap III is titled the band-aid.
This brace of songs is less angular than the predecessors, though the sweet sweet melodic sounds can be peeled away to find the lyrics as sharp as ever.
Utopia
This first song, ‘Utopia’, paints a picture of a perfect world. It turns out the defining character of this wonderful new world is that you have been erased from all memory.
If I could write you off my episode
I’d watch life like a new favourite show
Erasе your name from every pagе and script
Thanking my lucky stars
The delicate Americana of the song’s opening develops into a stomping anthemic cry of ‘me without you – utopia’ with soaring vocals.
Watch Royal & The Serpent – ‘Utopia’.
Sweet Tooth
The opening bars of ‘Sweet Tooth’ are indeed sickly sweet. The song is a creepily obsessive love song where it twists longing to craving. It’s all delivered in a candified melodic style, with only the occasional clever use of angles to expose the darkness.
So promise that you still love me
Even with my rotting teeth
Loving every cavity
I need you my sweet tooth
This song is a triumph. Smartly made but not self-indulgent, it tells the story perfectly.
Watch Royal & The Serpent – ‘Sweet Tooth’.
The Rat Trap
The trick to this series is simple. Just queue up all six songs in order and bask in the storytelling and theme changes. It’s varied yet cohesive. It’s edgy and exciting, but every song is also a drop-dead hit.
Written by Fenton on
