Amiss to much in the current musical landscape is taking what’s universally topical and relevant to our ongoing existential struggle and applying them to sounds equal in revealing how our mental discord transfers over wonderfully to the sonic canvas when pressed to its limits. Nicks and Grazes, the third studio effort from Philly pop experimentalists Palm, takes on that challenge, and fittingly after reaching their own point of creative burnout. Smashing together philosophy, color and synesthesia, rock noise and electronic devices, vocalists and guitarists Eve Alpert and Kasra Kurt alongside drummer Hugo Stanley and bassist Gerasimos Livitsanos come alive in their newfound freedom of approaching their art while becoming hyper-aware of the outside obstacles that brought the four-piece to this point. It’s pop extracted from every high and lull of emotion, but unlike one meant to imitate anything beyond the moment its consumed.

Highlights: “Feathers”, “Glen Beige”, “Tumbleboy”

Palm’s Nicks and Grazes will be released October 14th on Saddle Creek.

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