Vintage Musicologists of Reduced Authority,

The first and, apparently, final album by The Royal We arrived through my letterbox some time last week. Domino have become rather lackadaisical in their shipping recently, I used to enjoy ordering directly from their website in order to have the item arrive sharply and wallow in the free gubbins they include, but even these have declined in quality. I'm hoping that any passing recording artists on the Domino label (Hiiiii Alex) can have a word.

I first mentioned The Royal We in a Bellyaches article of September 2006. Since then, more people have said stuff about them, they've been on the radio a few times (I was probably quite influential in the arrangement of one of the appearances), they've released a single, All the Rage, and made an album.

The album is self-titled. It has 8 tracks. It lasts 20 minutes and 26 seconds. It's front cover features the Nicolas Anelka goal celebration. It's back cover shows the band sitting on a staircase. I could describe more but all The Bellyaches massive will all own a copy of this album anyway (or else they will be expulsed from the fraternity).

The Royal We are a rickety mess: the singing isn't quite harmonious, the tempo is all over the shop and that flamin' violin screeches all the way through. I love them and I hope they extend this ramshackle beauty into all their future projects (Sexy Kids, Correcto etc).

All the Rage has that special Scottish sound, just as the catchy "ooh-ooh-ahh" kicks in, the bassline is distinctively Scottish - it's just something Scottish bands do. Indie fans will be hard pressed to find a violin played so furiously and the fact that BBC 6music DJ Marc Riley could recite the verse when posed a question by a listener proves how penetrative this tune is.

That Ain't My Sweet Love, like a few others, could easily have been done by Blondie, it's perfect pop. Jihae is a great frontwoman, it's a shame that most of the world may never know it.

Three is a Crowd features some more of those quality backing vocals. I find that Joan uses her violin as if it was percussion, it's a somewhat novel sound.

My favourite song is I Hate Rock N Roll, a song that lambasts silly, egotistical lead singers. The backing vocals are the main feature and I love how Jihae sings "stop, drop and roll" and then suddenly, Patrick struggles to shout from the back, "there's a fire on". It's magic.

We may never hear their like again, all we have is this 2o minutes of recording to cherish.