Palm - Nicks and Grazes
Saddle Creek
The idiosyncratic and jarring jangle of Philadelipia's 'Palm' blesses 2022 with 'Nicks and Grazes'. The bands third full-length album, and first since 2018's 'Rock Island', sees the Philly foursome navigate an ever-changing palette of synth-splashed post-punk.
Palm are known for their solid and undoubtedly groovy rhythms, though they tend to sprinkle them with undertones of 'something is not quite right'. The lights are on, somebody's home, but is it their house? Minds more on the side of mischievous, maybe even murderous, will tend to find patterns that they agree with within Nicks and Grazes. Shades of Deerhunter's 'Halcyon Digest' comes through at times. The feeling of cold, damp basements linger in lament - a distant, almost delusional, sense of reality hovers within hand. Out of sight, out of mind. The drip of water from the crack in the ceiling that was supposed to be fixed months ago is starting to speak its mind 'Hey......psss......Hey.......you.....pssss'. Semi-schizophrenic states are on their way and may be here to stay. The constant change in motion kick-starts the feeling of sea-sickness on stilts.
Quite stop/start in its motion, Nicks and Grazes can feel like the roadblocks of creativity. One moment it's free-flowing, the next everything is disjointed and bordering on the edge of not making any coherent sense. You, as an individual, have been here before, many times, but it still manages to destroy your perception of what reality is - experience doesn't lessen its blow. Is it a necessary evil or something our subconscious is trying to tell us? - look elsewhere, find a new perspective, this has been done and done better. The mind has a funny way of letting us know what we think. Are we open to interpret the signs is the question. Palm encapsulate the feelings that come with uncertainty - stress and a clouded sense of stained judgement.
Palm have grafted and given us a work of unadulterated fun within an earshot of a true challenge - the highly capricious nature of the material would definitely be off-putting to some, but if you're willing to sit with the music you'll see that its all intended, though it can definitely become a bit disruptive in the overall working of things.
Seeing things from a skewed perspective tends to lead to skewed output - and in this case, the more the merrier. Confusion, or a sense of unease, does seem to sit center and permeate quite a lot of Palms output. Nicks and Grazes is most definitely held high in this regard. Get lost in the outlandish and discombobulated decor of Palm's latest full length. Enigmatic by nature, it's an experience that is as effective as it is infuriating.
