Palace is back with nostalgic album Shoals

When Palace announced a new album I was expecting a masterpiece like Life After so it was a bit disappointing when the first singles started to come out. It is not a bad album by any means, but it is not breath-taking either.

Rating: 3/5

Shoals starts with one of the highlights of the album: “Never Said it Was Easy” – a short but intense almost mantra-like track, which shows off singer Leo Wyndham’s lyricism. The second track “Shame on You”, is a colourful accent among a quite existential pit of despair. Sounding just out of an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, this song’s strong points are the ethereal guitar sounds and drums.

Taking a blues-rock turn, unfortunately, was not that great of a success, Palace move on with incomplete “Fade”, which is one of the most confusing points of the album. Nothing is worth mentioning apart from the lyrics on Hozier-like “Gravity”. The 5-minute-long track starts by saying “I’ve got sleep deprivation. A nocturnalist, chasing dreams”, and goes on telling a story of existence and loneliness, much like old Palace.

The beautiful and dreamy “Give me The Rain” resonates in my headphones and all I can think about is lying down in a field surrounded by flowers and the sun on my face. Even if it has a slightly underwhelming chorus, this track explodes in a comforting array of vocals and echoed guitars.

Sounds insane, but I need the pain ‘cause it helps me breathe living for the rain

This is the perfect remembrance song, remembrance of a life we lived but we never realised we were living. Sometimes rain can help us come back to reality.

Nothing changes, sound-wise, “Friends Forever” and “Killer Whale” has a very sweet and innocent personality. With the previously released single “Lover (Don’t Let Me Down)”, Palace prove that above anything else, they have not lost their impactful melodies.

“Sleeper” starts almost sounding like a coming-of-age song, and it probably is. With rhythmics similar to The National’s, that repetitive and monotonous drumming pulls at your heartstrings. “Days give away, constants fade, there’s a creature in my ribcage, they’ll kiss like a flick knife…” resonates, followed by an enthralling instrumental break that makes you reflect on the meaning of life.

Echoes, heartbeats, waves are all part of this album, reaching one of the peaks in “Salt”. However, as beautiful as all these songs sound alone, they get repetitive if listened to in an album. Following the title track, the closing “Where Sky Becomes Sea” leaves the listener with a bittersweet taste in their mouth. Being structured like all the other songs, and characterised by echoed vocals and melancholic guitars, the last song does not make justice to the intent behind Shoals.

But it is an album that Palace felt the need to put out. Sometimes albums are not perfect and will either disappoint or enthral the listeners, and I think Shoals did a bit of both. Some people out there needed to hear an album like this which, in its simplicity, still leaves a mark. A comfort, an embrace, or a harsh realisation… no matter what you got from this album, it is always there if you need to hear it.