Southend’s Rooskin have teamed up with fellow songsmith Katy for Kings on their latest single ‘Just a Town You’re Passing Through’. Released late 2021, can they keep up their rich vein form?
This time out, they allow a melancholy to pervade their hazy technicolour. Furthermore, the duet with Katy for Kings shows a creative instinct way beyond their years. Usually, it’s senior artists who dabble in a concept album. Rooskin, have boiled it down to a concept single where a couple enacts their tumultuous position.
The lyrical back and forth is less playful than Mystery Jets & Laura Marling’s ‘Young Love’ and more forlorn, albeit just as melodic. They impart honesty from both sides, demonstrating a creative acumen beyond their years. The Rooksin perspective, hopeful but beaten (“come on oversee things my way / but you never do / and you never will”) is downtrodden but shrouded in great melody. It is though, the spiky nature of Katy’s character where the true magic lies:
“my conversations come with a catch / I say things just to take them back”
The ethereal refrain is rapidly becoming an archetypal sonic. By adding the pop instincts of Mystery jets and the harmonies of the west coast on this offering, they have continued their fine run of singles by growing as a creative collective.