Painted Palms
Forever
Reviewed by: Melissa Komar
Forever, the first full-length album debut of Painted Palms, is categorized as electronic psych-pop, spans fourteen tracks and will leave listeners wondering if they are listening to music or if they’ve been transported to the duo’s world where “my hands…the air…aren’t really there.” Regardless of where Forever takes you, it’s a world that will envelope you and leaves you wanting and waiting for more.
The twelve track album was produced by the duo, who are also cousins, swapping music and vocals via the internet, but the flow reveals not a hint of separation between the two. Although the album leans in the direct of experimentation, the vocals are sometimes reminiscent of The Beach Boys around the time of “Good Vibrations”. The futuristic and altogether trippy instrumentation draws comparisons to The Flaming Lips and Passion Pit alike and take me back to my high school days of listening to indie electronic bands like Kasbian and Lake Trout.
Despite producing a sound that isn’t entirely new, you will find yourself tapping along and singing their succinct lyrics in between a heavy orchestration of electronic music.
The first four tracks are high energy, creating the perfect background for a dance party. The lyrics are a little deeper than the fantastic space-odyssey sounding music, with the duo claiming, “It’s hard to say just what you feel” on “Here It Comes” and it “feels like I just can’t hang on to myself,” on “Forever”. “Soft Hammer”, the fifth track on the album, signifies a change in tempo, creating a much mellower vibe.
The “trippiest” moment on the album can be found on “Not Really There”. The music and lyrics both create a mental picture of someone disconnected with reality, yet hyper-aware of the world around them with lyrics claiming, “light is like honey, moving so slow” and “you can get far away if you drift away.” Track eight provides a brief instrumental intermission and the duo dives right back in with their previously released “Spinning Signs”. The lyrics again suggest that the lyricist is struggling to put to paper what exactly he experiences in his mind singing, “can’t ever seem to let my mind out…why can’t any of the words get past my mouth.”
“Sleepwalking” is an interesting electronic lullaby, where listeners are cautioned, “before we begin, you should know I’m sleepwalking.” And with this line, the duo summarizes what they have been showcasing the entire album: the dream-like state of existence between the concrete world and the world of the mind. “Angels”, the final track of the album, is much slower in tempo, but appropriately so as you come down from the high of the musical trip of Forever. And don’t worry. Painted Palms leaves you with the promise that “everything is fine.”
Rating: Bad-Ass
