Album Review :: Palace - Life After

Album

Palace

Life After

July 12 2019 (Fiction)

7.5/10

Words: Richard Cobb

Three years after the wonderful 'So Long Forever', the second outing from Palace is a well thought out journey, that you sense both band and fans have been desperate to have out in the open.

Immediately following the starting pistol, the album's title track is a big anthem to set the pace and reaches a similar level to the peaks of the band’s near faultless debut at the early stages with its gentle but powerful vibe. 'Berlin' slows things down to a more manageable speed and it’s a bit of a slow-burner, but nonetheless a rewarding listen with the guitar line leading you into a maze before descending into a victorious torch burning outro.

One of the moments that stays with you long after the needle has ascended from the vinyl (or your phone’s gone back into the depths of your pocket, depending on the medium you’re listening to it) is the raw beauty of 'Face In The Crowd'. The romantic Bon Iver-esque acoustic voyage is a real round the campfire heart warmer which would melt your heart quicker than the campfire would melt a marshmallow. What caught my breath about 'Caught My Breath' is the sampling in the background of the track. It is reminiscent of The National’s 'Sleep Well Beast', with its subtle secret ingredients that add a new dimension and a bit of shimmer to an otherwise familiar sound.

Just over the halfway point, 'Martyr' can be filed alongside 'Break The Silence' and 'So Long Forever' from the band’s debut with its expert floating between a slow number and a memorable anthem of sheer brilliance.
For anyone still pining for The Maccabees, you should draw your attention towards 'Running Wild' to fill the void. The repetition of the vocal line serves to shine a spotlight on the impressive guitar lines from Leo Wyndham and Rupert Turner and it works a treat upping the guitar on the mix here to take centre stage on one of the highlights of the record.

All in all, it’s a solid effort from Palace here and there’s definite progression and expansion of ideas from their first full-length, but there’s a slight tendency to backtrack over previously covered territory instead of embarking on a new quest which it shows real promise of exploring with its intricacies and nuances laced throughout the fifty-minutes. Still, an album to hold dearly and revisit regularly.