How Did We Get So Dark? by Royal Blood

How Did We Get So Dark?, Royal Blood's second album, came out on Warner Bros. in June 2017, with the Worthing duo back behind the desk alongside Tom Dalgety, who had helped them make the debut. This time an extra producer came aboard, and you can hear the room opening up: harmonies, keyboards, even songwriting help from outside, bolted onto the same bruising two-piece chassis.

The chassis is still the point. Mike Kerr runs his bass through enough pedals and amps to sound like a bassist and a guitarist at once, and Ben Thatcher pounds away like he's trying to keep up. "Lights Out" is all stomp and swagger, while "I Only Lie When I Love You" rides a nagging, dirty groove. Reviews were mostly warm, and it gave them a second UK number-one album in a row.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.