Joe Kelly & The Royal Pharmacy - Cast Me Down (2025) Hi-Res

Newport’s finest deliver the ‘difficult’ sophomore album with tenacity and panache. You might have been inclined to think of Newport in Wales as something of a cultural backwater in the UK. Therefore, you might be surprised to know that there is an exciting resurgent music scene producing some exciting and increasingly well-known artists – one such is Joe Kelly, who leads a band called The Royal Pharmacy. Although the music scene tends not to be of a roots music persuasion, Joe Kelly’s sophomore album has a more than minimal Americana swagger, and a range of roots music influences that serve it well.

Kelly was brought up in Newport during the last time that Newport had a thriving music scene in the 1990s and early 2000s, and learned to play the guitar when he was 13 via free lessons at school. When these ended, his music teacher allowed him into school to jam with him. And when his time at school ended, he became a touring musician, driving to gigs (and living) in a beat-up old Ford Fiesta. He credits a lot of his talent and success to being mentored by local musical hero Carl Bevan, drummer with The 60ft Dolls. As a solo troubadour, Kelly toured the country, more so when the Newport music scene collapsed in the 2000s and many venues closed down. This itinerant lifestyle allowed him the opportunities to explore the countryside and write songs, but it was difficult to get any of his music into the marketplace and just as difficult to keep his band together as gigs dried up. What has emerged over the years, however, is a Newport-based masterclass in cinematic songwriting, the songs that have been gestating over the years brought together with his reformed band, The Royal Pharmacy.

And as the local music scene has been re-energised, so has the chance to record and release his music. A debut album, “World on Fire”, was released in 2023 to critical acclaim (made partly before COVID in the studio and partly remotely during lockdown), and the so-called ‘difficult’ sophomore album (“Cast Me Down”) has been seamlessly released, on vinyl only, songs mostly taken from the same catalogue that he had been accumulating over the years and recorded at around the same time as the debut, but with added what you might call “oomph”. The Royal Pharmacy includes album producer Jon Greening on keyboards, Chris Vinnicombe on guitar, Niall Davey on bass, and Morgan Wicks on drums, with Joe Kelly on various guitars. And boy, do they make the songs sound good?! Which is quite surprising as, similarly to “World on Fire”, few of the songs were written with a band in mind, and yet, with a wide range of influences, musically and lyrically, they work really well. As you pick through the tracks, you can hear the influence of Arctic Monkeys, The Beatles circa “The White Album”, a little touch of The Eagles, Mamas and Papas (amazingly, ‘Little Fears’ sounds very similar to ‘California Dreamin’’ as the song ramps up), The Raconteurs and Father John Misty, all influences freely acknowledged by Kelly.

The album kicks off with a mid-paced rocker, ‘200 Years’ with organ, harmonica and guitar fighting for control. The aforementioned ‘Little Fears‘ starts with a ’60s Farfisa-style riff before the Mamas and Papas-sounding verse. And there’s a great cinematic guitar solo. The variety continues throughout – the title track sounds very like The Arctic Monkeys, largely due to Kelly’s Alex Turner-like voice. ‘Holding‘ is a slow ballad and a highlight of the album with a bluesy vibe, lovely haunting backing keyboards, a reverbed guitar break and super backing vocals. ‘Matilda‘ is very soulful, and ‘Fill My Soul‘ is a slow blues. Kelly’s voice is powerful and versatile, and he takes on the various musical styles with ease, as does the band, aided by the wonderful backing vocals of Erin McNamara and Scott McKeown. ‘Sleeperhold’ has a wonderful tinkly piano riff and psyched-up guitar during the break – this has a Beatles-ish sound, but the influence is more pronounced on ‘Oh My Baby’ and ‘Living Daylights’, with very Lennonesque vocals.

The album closes with the eight-and-a-half-minute ‘Doomscroller‘, with changes in speed to slow, psychedelic guitar and keyboards and then picks up again with a Beach Boys/doo-wop vocal backing to a 60s sounding tune, and changes again into a long outro-with-guitar-and-assorted-‘-sounds’. It reminds of parts of Dawes’ “Misadventures of Doomscroller “album in its ambition.

It’s a very good album, superbly produced by Greening, who takes the credit for converting what were, in effect, solo voice and acoustic guitar songs into something extremely dynamic, trading up from the less produced and, to be honest, slightly more Americana-sounding debut. Rumour has it that the band are very exciting to see live and you can imagine that a great deal of live energy has been used in its creation. And Kelly has another 30 songs in his locker, ready for the next album. Go take a listen.