Review: ‘Boom Boom Room (Side B)’ Lives Up to Hype

SUMERIAN RECORDS | PHOTO COURTESY
Fans were not disappointed with the fashion rock band’s latest release.

After the warm reception of Palaye Royale’s first album “Boom Boom Room (Side A)” in 2016, the demands for its counterpart steadily increased.

The three-piece Las Vegas based band is made up of lead singer Remington Leith, guitarist Sebastian Danzig and drummer Emerson Barrett. They were originally Toronto-based in their younger years, forming the band under the original name of Kropp Circle before switching it to Palaye Royale after an old Toronto dance hall.

Finally two years later, “Boom Boom Room (Side B)” was released Sept. 28. Half the size of its predecessor, the sophomore album had a lot to live up to with eight songs.

Fans have absolutely loved the band’s new chapter, selling out nearly their entire upcoming tour almost instantly and raising the album to the No. 3 spot on iTunes.

Full of rollicking tracks tinged with the band’s “vintage scary movie” instrumentation, there is no doubt fans will soon beg for more.

‘Mrs. Infamous (My Sweetness)’

Looking for a song with a theme that could have come straight out of a “Law and Order: SVU” or “Criminal Minds” episode? Look no further than track five on “Boom Boom Room (Side B).”

Leith takes on the role of an unhealthily obsessed man who stalks the “girl of his dreams.” This obsession leads to Leith harassing her friends for information, standing on his tiptoes to look in her window and even stealing her underwear. Why steal her underwear? To wear them as he dances around his room, of course. Just when the storyline seemingly cannot get any more twisted, Leith divulges: “I finally figured out/what I’m singing about/about a guy who loved a girl so much/he’s gonna put her in the ground.” That confession could send shivers down anyone’s spine.

Don’t let the subject matter deter you, though. It is an upbeat fun track that is easy to sing along to.

‘Love the Void’

A deceptively peppy song, the instrumentation sounds like the theme song from “New Girl”: all staccatoed piano and bells.  The similarity stops there. A song about caring for a suicidal friend, the story of the song can be interpreted to have a heartbreaking end.

The pre-chorus reassures: “I’ll never never let you go/I never want to see you low/I never want you to go/Well one day you’ll die/ but not tonight.” As the song progresses, the pre-chorus becomes increasingly vehement and desperate. The verses suggest the suicidal friend is currently in the hospital for an attempt (possibly not their first). Leith sings: “I’m finding God in hospitals/ wild things in wicked halls.” As Leith comes to grips with the severity of the situation he continues: “Wake up, you’ll be just fine/no, not this time.”

Leith is at their bedside, and as it gets late he struggles to resist the urge to sleep. The overpowering irrational thought he has is that if he doesn’t say “goodnight,” his friend can’t fall into his eternal rest. It’s a powerful song to say the least.

‘The Boom’

Sometimes the things that seem the most insignificant are in fact the most important. The final track on “Boom Boom Room (Side B)” is a prime example. On the surface “The Boom” is a simple old-timey speech backgrounded by piano, usually the type of track often neglected.

The band has often stated the album and its predecessor “Boom Boom Room (Side A)” should be listened in full together as if one large album to “complete the story.” The story mentioned is not as obvious as a rock opera, but you can see the journey embedded below the surface. “The Boom” is the final chapter, reconciling the struggles emulated by the previous tracks. The speech is actually quite moving when you pay attention to it, telling listeners to live each day as their ideal life.

The ominous voice leads readers on a philosophical voyage: “Let’s suppose that you were able, every night, to dream any dream you wanted to dream. And that you could, for example, have the power, within one night, to dream 75 years of time … Then you would get more and more adventurous, and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you could dream. Finally, you would dream where you are now … You would dream the dream of living the life you are actually living today. That would be within the infinite multiplicity of choices of dreams you would have … Of playing that you weren’t God.”

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