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Roil Shines In New Album 'Living Outside the Closet'
- Melodrift Team
- Jun 11
- 2 min read
ROIL’s Living Outside the Closet doesn’t sound interested in spectacle. The Belgium-based artist approaches indie-pop with the energy of someone documenting emotional survival in real time, turning private anxieties into songs that feel startlingly direct. Across the album, ROIL writes about masculinity, heartbreak, queer identity, and self-worth with the kind of specificity that makes even the quietest moments hit unexpectedly hard.
A lot of the record exists in emotional grey areas. “Straight Guy” isn’t just about desire; it’s about emotional imbalance and the strange loneliness that comes from wanting people who can never fully meet you where you are. “manhood,” meanwhile, is both funny and quietly devastating, dismantling masculine expectations without turning the song into a lecture. ROIL understands that humour and pain usually occupy the same emotional space.
Sonically, the album leans into soft-focus indie-pop textures: airy synths, restrained percussion, guitar lines that drift rather than explode. There are moments that recall artists like Troye Sivan or Rex Orange County, but the project feels more emotionally raw than polished for streaming-era perfection. Tracks like “bedroom cry” and “Whisper” work precisely because they leave imperfections exposed instead of sanding them down.
What makes Living Outside the Closet compelling is its refusal to package healing into something cinematic. ROIL doesn’t pretend self-acceptance arrives cleanly or permanently. The album ends with uncertainty still intact, but that honesty becomes its own form of resolution. In a genre often obsessed with aestheticizing sadness, ROIL offers something messier and much more believable.
“With Living Outside the Closet, ROIL delivers a deeply personal yet universally relatable debut; fearless, emotional, and unapologetically honest. His ability to blend vulnerability, humour, and alternative pop sensibilities makes this record feel both intimate and timely,” shares music publicist Danielle Holian, Decent Music PR.
