Royal

13 years after first releasing their last full-length, Boom Pam are back. The title track opens things up with acoustic soft-rock strumming, followed by a gnarly surf guitar groove. It would be fitting music for the finale of an Italo-Israeli ‘spaghetti and shakshuka’ western, and sets the tone for the album, which is groovy, filmic, ironic and cool. It even delves into disco-funk, but lacks the pugnacious one-two punch of Boom Pam's self-titled debut. Ironically, the heavily-accented tuba and bouzouki of that album were much rockier and more intense than the strongly rock guitar-stressed Royal. In this purely instrumental album, there are no songs per se, also none of the emotive cries or invocations which accompanied the best tracks of their earlier work. The surf guitars are a nice schtick, but they get old after a while. A welcome touch are the keys, which create a psychedelic vibe on some of the best songs, such as ‘Juda’, which blends a heavy synth mood with wicked guitar plucking. In sum, though, this album lacks the ribald raucousness of Boom Pam's best work.