Roil Delivers Stunning New Album ‘Living Outside The Closet’
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Belgium-based queer indie-pop artist ROIL arrives with Living Outside the Closet, a debut that feels simultaneously diaristic and cinematic.
Across eleven tracks, the project captures the emotional turbulence of identity, heartbreak, masculinity, and healing with an honesty that rarely feels performative. Rather than romanticising pain, ROIL frames it as an unavoidable companion to growth, allowing vulnerability to become the album’s defining texture.
The project’s greatest strength lies in how naturally it balances emotional heaviness with sharp self-awareness. Tracks like “manhood” dissect masculinity through an offbeat, witty lens, while “Straight Guy” explores longing and emotional confusion without collapsing into melodrama. ROIL’s songwriting often feels conversational, almost as if listeners are reading fragments from private journal entries moments after they were written.
Sonically, Living Outside the Closet exists somewhere between indie-pop intimacy and alternative-pop atmosphere. Echoes of Conan Gray and Troye Sivan emerge in the emotional directness, while the softer melancholy of Phoebe Bridgers lingers beneath tracks like “uneasy” and “Whisper.” Yet the album never sounds derivative. ROIL’s background — shaped by classical training, J-pop influences, Thai rock, and British alternative music — gives the record a distinct emotional palette.
What makes the album especially compelling is its refusal to present queerness through a singular emotional framework. There is loneliness here, certainly, but also humour, confidence, desire, resentment, and quiet resilience. “I don’t mind” feels particularly effective in this regard, transforming accumulated judgment into a strangely uplifting acceptance of self. Meanwhile, “Shittier Than Goodbye” captures heartbreak with brutal clarity, pairing biting lyricism with understated production.
Vocally, ROIL excels in restraint. Rather than relying on dramatic crescendos, he often allows small cracks in his voice to carry emotional weight. This subtlety strengthens tracks like “dandelion” and “bedroom cry,” where the sparse arrangements leave space for emotional nuance. The production mirrors this intimacy, favouring atmosphere and lyrical clarity over maximalism.
Ultimately, Living Outside the Closet succeeds because it feels lived-in. ROIL isn’t attempting to package queer pain into digestible pop formulas; instead, he offers an unfiltered portrait of survival, identity, and emotional reconstruction. The album’s honesty becomes its own form of catharsis, making this an understated yet deeply affecting indie-pop release.
“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.
