Palace's debut EP 'Lost In The Night' is a gleaming gem in the crown of an indie music scene currently obsessed with making replica's of guitar bands been and gone, or drenching themselves in psychedelic groove.
Whilst the London ensemble do have bundles of groove to them, it's refreshingly unexpected. The throwback to blues and soft rock is a gentle and pleasant surprise to energetic indie-ears. 'Bitter' is the lead track, and arguably up there with some of the greatest sounds of the year. The raw hear-felt vocals are hard to go a miss, as is the climactic, jumbled instrumental ending.
The rest of the EP is fairly tender, with 'I Want What You Got' and 'Ocean Deep' still exploiting those quickly identifiable vocals. Essentially, the true beauty of Palace is never quite reached until you meet 'Veins'. It's a lullaby track you'd expect to find from the depths of a dusty antique store, still crackling on a record player as it did all those years before. Final number, 'Lost In The Night' rounds of a promising debut, with it's outro of percussion and fret-bending woes.
An EP as honest as ever, there's more than a gap on the record store shelf for Palace. That's so long as they don't get sucked into mainstream obscurity and keep their archaic, alternative blues-driven melodies refreshing and cool.
Palace - 'Into The Night'
Out of 10: 8/10
By Joshua Shreeve
Buy/ [iTunes]
Follow/ [Facebook] [Twitter]
Listen/ [Soundcloud]
Whilst the London ensemble do have bundles of groove to them, it's refreshingly unexpected. The throwback to blues and soft rock is a gentle and pleasant surprise to energetic indie-ears. 'Bitter' is the lead track, and arguably up there with some of the greatest sounds of the year. The raw hear-felt vocals are hard to go a miss, as is the climactic, jumbled instrumental ending.
The rest of the EP is fairly tender, with 'I Want What You Got' and 'Ocean Deep' still exploiting those quickly identifiable vocals. Essentially, the true beauty of Palace is never quite reached until you meet 'Veins'. It's a lullaby track you'd expect to find from the depths of a dusty antique store, still crackling on a record player as it did all those years before. Final number, 'Lost In The Night' rounds of a promising debut, with it's outro of percussion and fret-bending woes.
An EP as honest as ever, there's more than a gap on the record store shelf for Palace. That's so long as they don't get sucked into mainstream obscurity and keep their archaic, alternative blues-driven melodies refreshing and cool.
Palace - 'Into The Night'
Out of 10: 8/10
By Joshua Shreeve
Buy/ [iTunes]
Follow/ [Facebook] [Twitter]
Listen/ [Soundcloud]