Palms Station has been making some very interesting music in 2022, and in their new single and music video “Alive,” they press the eccentric side of their sound harder than they ever have before. In this track, the band tackles soft psych-rock harmonies with an aggressive rhythmic punch, and where many of their contemporaries have been favoring a more streamlined approach to similarly stylized content, Palms Station openly chases after aesthetical conflict here as if it were about to go extinct. You don’t have to be a longtime supporter of this genre or some of the bigger names in it to dig what this band has done in “Alive,” with the help of Torii Wolf, but something tells me diehard fans will be especially pleased with this most recent work.
The mix here is very well-organized and arranged to give equal parts of the spotlight to the string section and the vocals, but it doesn’t leave out the captivating texture of the percussive element in the song, either.
I get the vibe that Palms Station wanted to deliberately make the levels in “Alive” just a little louder and prouder than they needed to be in this instance, not to allow for unnecessary excesses, but to maximize the melodic depth in the track. Their experimenting yields marvelous results, and I hope it won’t be the last time they give this particular formula a go.
I love the direction that Palms Station is taking their music in, and if either progressive pop or modern minimalist rock music is your thing, I believe you’re going to share my sentiments after listening to “Alive” this month. There are plenty of acts trying to establish themselves as strong crossover units in 2022, but there aren’t very many that are managing quite as well as this group is, both in their latest single and the music video made to support its release. Overall, I think indie fans will love what they find here – and others just might be surprised at the talent they discover in Palms Station.
