Sunday, May 6, 2018

10:34:00 PM

Arriving in adulthood is a bitter-sweet experience. Abandoned childhood fascinations make way for tough life lessons. But also the hope and potential that comes with taking charge  of both your life and other ‘ s.

Birth Take Shelter Pursuit Of The Ballroom Empire Baltimore Come Back (Left Behind) The Accident Demon Acting Like Lovers Kenopsia

These are the central themes in Nowadays, the second full-length album from Palace Winter. Copenhagen based Australian singer-songwriter Carl Coleman and Danish producer and classically trained pianist Caspar Hesselager have built on their dynamic relationship to create an album that swells between tender ballads and high-energy melodies.

Built around floating keys, rhythm guitar and an insisting beat, they forge a bright and gloomy album that further develops the group   s unique sound, which has so far won them international plaudits from BBC 6 Music, NME and The Guardian, as well as Gaffa in Denmark, where they are based.

It opens with    Birth   , a mellow track whose minor key synths invite you into the duo   s atmospheric and melancholic universe. This is reinforced by the following number    Take Shelter   , a choral death ballad about confronting grief and coping with loss.

Fans of Palace Winter   s energetic live shows won   t be disappointed by the    The Ballroom   , the tale of a narcissistic and evil rock singer. Its vigour is reminiscent of the ecstatic    Positron    from their 2016 album Waiting for the World to Turn     songs that need to be played driving into the sunset with the windows rolled down as the world behind you burns.

Their 80s influence shines through on    Empire   , and    Come Back (Left Behind)   , whose bright notes contrast with lyrics that dwell on the challenges of anxiety, and coming to terms with the loss of a lover and feeling like you   ll never escape the fog of grief.

The album continues its exploration of deeply human themes in    Baltimore    (the experience of a suffocating love),    The Accident    (the realisation that life isn   t as bad as it seems),    Demon    (overcoming self-doubt and fear) and    Acting Like Lovers    (how sharing a traumatic experience can bring people closer).

Coleman lifts the distortion on his vocals for the final track    Kenopsia   , an eerie duet with Hesselager   s keys. It   s echoey reverberations appear to bounce within an enormous space that the two can   t fill     it   s full of soul and spectral emptiness.

Nowadays mulls over the challenges we face just trying to be alive in the present moment in a world full of distraction. You can   t swipe your way to happiness     you have to lift your eyes first.

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