REISSUE (previously on Three Gut Records). If Royal City's debut was pencil-drawn, tentative, and fragile, this is bold, full-color evidence of what two years of touring do to a lo-fi bedroom band, though they haven't lost an ounce of their hushed, sweet charm. It sounds like they've hauled their gear up every club staircase in North America, and they flex every new muscle on the first 60 seconds here: stuttering drums, pulsing country bass, rich acoustic guitar, drunken blues, spacey banjo, starlit piano, crackling yet confident deathbed vocals, and a tone of doom and disgust. And it only gets better, and scarier, from there. Aaron Riches' seamy, sensory lyrics are sensitively arranged by producer Andy Magoffin and the band; it's perhaps the best work anyone involved has ever done. Timeless. Reference Points: Will Oldham/Palace, Neil Young circa On The Beach, Two Minute Miracles. --Michael Barclay, Toronto's Eye Weekly