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Royal Blue

Cold War Kids

“Royal Blue,” Cold War Kids. Nathan Willett gets knocked down, but he gets up again: “I guess I’ve always been a bit of a fighter,” he sings here, as “Royal Blue” bleeds into Technicolor. The song, a promising leak from the band’s forthcoming third album, finds the Kids swimming till they can’t see land.

From now on, with the sky as my roof
From now on, let the risk lead me to
From now on, somewhere I never knew

There is a lightness here that was missing on the band’s second album; in the latter half, skittering West African guitars buoy the production. But it is Willett’s soulful urgency that stays with you — “from now on” is his mantra, and in this song he makes a compelling break with the past. One of the year’s best.

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