Listen: Palm - "Pearly"

While Philly based rock pop experimentalists Palm released their Shadow Expert EP earlier this year, they've already had the follow up to both it and debut full length record Trading Basics firmly prepped. So much so that fans of theirs who caught them on their most recent tour promoting the EP heard many of these new songs. "Pearly", the album opening track and first single from their upcoming record Rock Island, essentially bridges the gap between Shadow Expert and this new record, in that while it features the quartet's trademark complexity - both in rhythmic figures and time signatures, it keeps in line with much of Shadow Expert in dulling much of the harsh, abrasiveness of Trading Basics.

"Pearly" also finds the band introducing new elements to their already multitudinous layers - namely in the addition of synths. Guitarists Kasra Kurt and Eve Alpert have largely experimented with the expectation of guitar sounds in the pursuit of their mathematical art-pop so much so that you're not entirely sure the synth sound isn't just a guitar run through some cool effect. But outside of Palm, Kurt has been experimenting with electronics (as evidenced by his split Nino Tomorrow with Ada Babar released late last month) and that experimentation has found its way into Palm. Even with the addition, the synths are treated as more of another color to paint with instead of point of primary focus especially as Kurt essentially sets and forgets the synth sample and accompanies Alpert in their trademark angular guitar interplay.

"Pearly" is wonderfully dreamy - featuring Alpert as the lead singer as she spins lyrics at once fragmented and mysterious: "I can feel elimination coming/what to do, I look around at nothing" Alpert begins and the existential crisis contained therein is at odds both with the collected calm of Alpert's delivery as well as Palm's buoyant accompaniment. 

But Palm have always been a band of contradictions and duality, and "Pearly" is no different. It's a song of complements as vocals operate both in the more textural sense Palm have always regarded them as well as giving an indication of what "Pearly" is about. But Palm don't make it easy and the lyrics are playfully tossed and turned in the wave-like lilt of Palm's unexpectedly smooth instrumentation. Where Palm might normally infuse jolts of energy through the use of jagged guitars or a rush of harsh noise, the differing element lies in Alpert's vocals which rise to climatic sighs.



Palm's sophomore full length record Rock Island is out February 9th on Carpark Records.