Palace
Shoals
Release Date: Jan 21, 2022
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Virgin
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Album Review: Shoals by Palace
Excellent, Based on 2 Critics
Based on rating 8/10
Confronting their fears and anxieties with the pedal through the floor, the quartet have written a step-by-step instruction manual on overcoming loss and embracing the real 'us'. Travelling through the existential "Gravity" to the haunting delicacy of "Fade" and the nostalgic undertones of "Give Me The Rain", Shoals is a journey through the the band's collective mind. Opening track "Never Said It Was Easy" embraces you with an opening chorus of vocalisations, backed by insistent synths veiled in melancholy.
Opinion: Excellent
Palace have always been a band imbued with promise. Two studio albums - 2016's debut 'So Long Forever' and 2019 follow up 'Life After' - encapsulated this, with indie rooted songwriting that sought out something different, more dramatic, more theatrical. Constructed during lockdown and beyond, third album 'Shoals' finds Palace eclipsing those aims, a 12 tracks song cycle that deals with identity, grief, and the stubborn path forwards.
'Shoals'
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