Album Review: Palace

Palace are a London based alternative indie band, formed in 2015 and were handpicked by fellow London based artist, Jamie T, to support him during his comeback shows in 2015. Their debut album, So Long Forever, is an extremely atmospheric journey for your ears and has been compared to bands such as the Maccabees and Wu Lyf.

The opening song, Break the Silence, is a promising start to the album with an upbeat intro consisting of uplifting, melodic guitar parts, fast drum fills and complimentary vocals. However, as soon as I heard singer, Leo Wyndham, resonate his ear pleasing voice, I couldn’t help but think he sounds almost exactly like Yannis Philippakis of the Foals. Anyway, after the opening song, we hear some decent, polyphonic guitar harmonies when Bitter kicks in. A passionate and romantic song with lyrics like, ‘I’ve played your strings…’ as well as syncopated, off beat drums and further polyphonic harmonies during the guitar solo and break. A noteworthy song is It’s Over which has a Saint Raymond vibe to it with some good lyrics albeit a repetitive chorus. The distinct guitar parts and high voice range from Wyndham make up for this. Further significance on this album is the connection between the songs, Fire in the Sky and Family, this is something I always look for in an album, it creates a good flow and makes it feel like one big journey rather than a bunch of random songs put together. The slide guitar in Family sounds like the guitar is almost crying, with a bluesy sound. Have Faith follows the emotion of Family with an upbeat intro with a Peace like guitar riff. The emotion then returns for the chorus when an interesting ascending guitar riff and punchy drums are used to build to the chorus. The bass riff used here is very boring, albeit, prominent. The repetitive guitar parts with too many effects during the break sounds too much like most upcoming indie bands who attempt to separate themselves from the rest by calling themselves something silly like Tropical Indie. The album title track, So Long Forever, begins with a jumbled-up sound however towards the end there’s an exceptional combination of cheery guitar riff parts and solemn singing, sounding almost like Gregorian chants. The only notable/interesting thing I heard during the song, Blackheath was the bass guitar. It wasn’t very pronounced during the rest of the album, but the bass perfectly complements the guitar without overpowering it with effective trills and hammer – ons. Holy Smoke is an interesting song, as they make use of small build ups whilst using perfect vocal harmonies, however, it ends sounding too much like current, typical songwriter stuff but they manage to redeem themselves by bringing their distinct guitar parts to this style.

Overall, I enjoyed this album. I think they’ve created a distinct guitar sound that is hard to find in upcoming, indie bands. There’s effective emotion in Wyndhams’ voice, but he sounds far too similar to Philippakis and this is a shame, as Palace, are a better band in some ways, like their voice harmonies and guitar melodies.

You can see Palace on the 8th of April at the Mash House in Edinburgh. I would highly recommend this as I think they’d put on an overwhelming and atmospheric show in such an intimate venue.

#album #reviews #alternative #indie