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The Palace arrive at their fateful second attempt three years after their debut "So Long Forever", which helped build a solid following and a good reputation among lovers of certain calm and dreamy dream rock stories.
The new work, released by Fiction and baptized "Life After", is a great album and a definite step forward compared to the still decent debut. The songwriting becomes more mature and focused, and the eleven tracks that make up the album give a strong impression of cohesion and show truly clear and focused ideas.
Of course, the sound references are always the same and are always very present (Elbow above all, but there's also something for those who haven't digested Coldplay's stadium monster turn post-"Parachutes"), but this time the band is more ingenious and brings out an unsuspected personality.
Credit to songs crafted with mastery, which expand only when absolutely necessary (see under "Heaven Up There", the first single and masterpiece of the album, cleverly placed at the end) and, despite often showing reasonably complex and atmospheric sonic structures (for example, the remarkable driven dream pop of "Caught My Breath"), they are light and extremely digestible in listening.
There are instances where the anchoring with reference bands is still too firm (the title track and "Face In The Crowd" sound as if they were outtakes from "Parachutes", while "No Other" is practically an Embrace song done and dusted) but the band's mastery in sneaking the right sonic hook at the right moment saves the day.
A special mention for frontman Leo Wyndham, who provides an absolutely perfect vocal performance calibrated to the mood of each individual track, and for the production by Catherine Marks and Luke Smith, not by chance already at work with highly promising bands like Foals and Wolf Alice.
A great album, which could shortly attract important attention for Palace and could also (perhaps) provide a solution for those still searching for a concrete alternative to the aforementioned bands.
Best track: Heaven Up There
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