Album Review: Her Royal Harness – The Hunting Room
Her Royal Harness are an intriguing duo. Norwegian singer/songwriter Helene Jaeger met the character behind Her Royal Harness’ production, Londoner Dylan Long, on a music forum – how very modern. Their vocations within the duo blend well and the surprise sounds that appear on their debut, The Hunting Room, reflects the duo’s spontaneous formation.
As soon as the stark, tribal drums of ‘Mercenary Man’ initiate the beginning of the record, you can just sense with your tingling musical antenna that you’re in for a treat. Pop streams out of this album like a gushing waterfall – there’s no halting it – but it’s got a rich expressive twist apparent throughout. Their main foundation is synth-pop, but there’s a layer of darkness, which is hard to put your finger on; maybe it’s the aura surrounding the sinister album name. The Hunting Room also has a retro touch: tracks like ‘Bear in a Trap’ and ‘Colour Me’ are reminiscent of Blondie in their effortless electro blips combined with hearty riffs. Of course, Jaeger’s high vocal ability – also a blend of Lana Del Rey and MS MR’s Lizzy Plapinger – on the infectious hooks is enough to catapult these songs into stand-out track status.
Boy/girl duos are doing their thing well at the moment and producing really classy material, just look at Alpines, MS MR and AlunaGeorge. Her Royal Harness mould themselves nicely into this growing mound of musicians. ‘I Can’t Believe’ – don’t let its very generic drums put you off – and previous single ‘Unseen’ are very much like MS MR, with the long synths dispersing themselves and beats that refuse to lift for any of the duration. ‘Submission’ ends with a breathy whisper of its title before slamming straight into, ‘Your Heart Is Harder’, another stomping number with plenty of kaleidoscopic electro vibes to be had as the chorus rings, “Your heart is harder to break, to penetrate.”
At only nine tracks, The Hunting Room is just the right length; it never feels over-done. It continues to brew and flourish as it proves why whole album is worth your time. Well, apart from the greatly slower ending track ‘Factories’, which just doesn’t bear the same exciting qualities as the others. Her Royal Harness couldn’t have really done any more with The Hunting Room. It’s a fresh debut where voice and production come together for an even fresher take on pop as we know it.
– Hayley Fox
The Hunting Room is available now on Manufacture.
