The Royston Club Present Big Guitars and Big Emotions » PopMatters
Everything about the Royston Club’s new LP is big, and some of it is even huge. Big crunchy guitars, catchy choruses, emotional lyrics, and powerful singing
Songs for the Spine The Royston Club Modern Sky 15 August 2025
Oasis might be snagging all the headlines, but the current tour by the reunited Gallagher brothers is by no means the only Britpop story of 2025. This year has seen the emergence of excellent albums by the Lathums (Matter Does Not Define), Circa Waves (Death & Love, Pt. 1, with Pt. 2 coming in October), and Sports Team (Boys These Days), among others. Most recently, the Royston Club released their big new album, Songs for the Spine.
The keyword is “big”. Everything about Songs for the Spine is big, and some of it is even huge. Big crunchy guitars. Big catchy choruses. Big emotional lyrics. Big, powerful singing. Even some big videos to promote the big songs. With all this bigness, it’s unsurprising to discover that the Royston Club have covered Taylor Swift‘s “You Belong With Me”, and that it rocks, while adding interesting new dimensions to the song.
Formed in Wrexham, Wales, in 2019, the Royston Club comprises Tom Faithfull (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Ben Matthias (lead guitar and most of the lyrics), Dave Tute (bass), and Sam Jones (drums). A series of singles led to their debut album, Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars, in 2023. From its opening song, “The Deep End”, onward, Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars proved to be a delightful power pop record that both fulfilled the promise of the group’s early singles and proved to be a worthy template for Songs for the Spine.
The Royston Club may have tightened up their songwriting and playing on the Songs for the Spine, but they’ve done so while maintaining the energy of Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars. That is apparent right away on the opening track, “Shivers”, which starts with menacing bass and a few scattered guitar chords before exploding into a full-blown anthem 24 seconds into the song.
Lyrically, “Shivers” presents lust as an emotion that will run through most of the album: “Clutch me like a rosary, and rip off my jeans / Lover, let’s make history / We’ll melt, and glue, and stick, and weave/ ‘Til it’s no longer you or me / Just bodies spinning endlessly.” “Shivers” is followed by a trio of power pop gems, “Patch Where Nothing Grows”, “Crowbar”, and “Glued to the Bed”, all of which elaborate on themes of love, lust, heartbreak, and enticingly loud guitars.
The Royston Club found room for a few reflective ballads on Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars and continued that trend on Songs for the Spine. “Cariad”, which opens with “I’m not a godly man / But every time we fucked / I’d shout out, ‘Oh, God’, enough / To send up my own little prayer,” details a doomed love affair. “Spinning” begins as an atmospheric tune but gradually spins itself to a noisier finish.
Most enigmatic among the slower tracks, and probably on the entire album, is the closing song, “The Ballad of Glen Campbell”, a dramatic tale of romantic redemption, soundtracked by the titular singer/guitarist: “We woke in the morning to Glen Travis Campbell / And I swear I’ve never felt so new / Oh, I’m so smitten by you.” Listeners seeking subtlety may want to look elsewhere. However, if you’re looking for something big all over – kind of like Oasis – then the Royston Club’s Songs for the Spine just might scratch that itch.