Blacklist Royals – Doomsday Girl

To some, it may appear that Nashville’s Blacklist Royals have been a little quiet over the past few years. Their last full length, Die Young With Me, came out in 2014. Since then, they’ve only released a three song EP – 2017’s Model Citizen. However, “quiet” is the furthest thing from what they’ve been.

First there was the side project, The Bad Signs. Then twin A – Rob Rufus – started writing a few novels and released a memoir, Die Young With Me, and fiction novel, The Vinyl Underground. While he was doing that, twin B – Nat Rufus – began work on a solo project. And between all that, they were also developing a Netflix adaptation of Die Young With Me. That’s not quiet, that’s pretty damn busy.

Nevertheless, fans can be forgiven for itching for new music, and luckily the band has finally delivered with a new three song EP: Doomsday Girl.

Composed of three songs from their upcoming Netflix adaptation, Doomsday Girl comes barreling out with an energy and upbeat momentum previously unfound in their prior catalogue. Despite the somber tone of the album (lyrics like “I’ve got a lot of dead friends from heroin, from suicide, the papers said they never tried” liter the album), there remains a sense of optimism threaded throughout.  The songs are more stripped down before, focused more on the rock and roll nature with a pop-punk twist. Focusing on guitar and drums rather than keys and additional instrumentation, the EP shines with their straight forward approach. Their heavy doses of “woahs” basically begs the listening to sing along with Doomsday Girl.

A mix of The Menzingers and Screeching Weasel, the latest from The Blacklist Royals shows that they haven’t been sitting on their laurels. All their other side projects and adventures have helped hone their song writing and storytelling abilities which have accumulated to three songs worthy of repeated listens. The songs are tighter than ever before. More energetic. The songs come packing a punch – all crammed together in a mere eight minutes of punk rock abrasion.

The title track, Doomsday Girl, is the highlight song of 2021 so far; and I, for one, hope that there’s more new Blacklist Royals on the horizon.