Molly Wroe

After gaining some traction from their cover of Taylor Swift’s ‘Me!’ Southampton’s four piece pop punk band Royals are back with a brand new single ‘Out of Reach’. The record has been released with the help of popular punk band Neck Deep’s Seb Barlow and provides a familiar, comforting sound for all pop punk fans both new and old.

The song begins with a very upbeat, pop punk guitar riff and some thrashy drums, a very comfortable, conventional sound for followers of the genre. If you’re a fan of the more poppy, lighthearted side of the spectrum with bands such as Bowling For Soup and Simple Plan, I’m almost certain you’ll like this track. Personally, I find it quite comforting to re-open my music taste to a genre that I feel like I’ve left in the past, so this song gives me a great nostalgia feeling too.

Lyrically, this track is pretty powerful and uplifting, and if it wasn’t clear from the words already, vocalist Luke Smithson explained:

“Out Of Reach is an inspirational song about chasing after your dreams and doing whatever it takes to make them a reality. We believe everyone should be able to relate to this in some way as everybody has goals and dreams they want to achieve in their lives.”

Smithson mixes singing with collective anthemic chanting with the rest of the band, and the lyrics are clear and easy to belt along to. If you’re the type of listener who finds it cathartic to yell along to loud music, this is a brilliant song for it, with lyrics such as:

“Life’s a game that I’m playing to win, I’m just not giving up, no I’m not settling.”

The song comes to a natural crescendo and I’m taken away to a future gig – practically feeling the bruises form from moshing, the hoarse throat from singing and the ringing in my ears from the heavy, loud instrumentals. The drum beat is built perfectly for thumping in your chest and I can see Royals doing really well at shows.

Overall I think this song is a brilliant piece of nostalgia to my pop punk days, and if fans are looking for some new music to fill their playlists with, look no further than ‘Out of Reach’. It’s uplifting, it’s anthemic and it’s practically stage-ready; I look forward to seeing what comes of Royals!