MUSIC REVIEWS
There’s a poignancy to these 11 swan songs, especially with such titles as “My Favorite Goodbye,” “My Last Dream Of You” and “The Great Manzini (Disappearing Act).”
Finality is a recurring theme on “Whispers and Sighs,” and during the mixing of the album early last year, singer-songwriter David Olney died on stage at a Florida music festival at age 71.
A master of his craft, Olney always chased his muse rather than hits, and his reputation is burnished by this unlikely collaboration with Anana Kaye, a young singer-songwriter from the country of Georgia who is now based in Nashville.
These original songs about love, longing and impermanence are set more than a century ago, perhaps in Europe, their dreamy beauty magnified by marvelous singing. Kaye’s arresting alto echoes Broadway and the Caucasus Mountains, while Olney makes like an Americana Burl Ives. They both sound wise and well-traveled.
“Time takes everything but love,” Olney sings on “My Favorite Goodbye.”
Kaye’s husband, guitarist Irakli Gabriel, co-wrote and contributed to arrangements that vary from the fiddle-driven Klezmer of the title cut to piano-pounding rock on “Last Days Of Rome.”
As the latter reaches its compelling climax, Olney shouts, “Raise your glass!”
Here’s to you, David. — Steven Wine, The Associated Press
Lifeboat Candidate Palm Ghosts (Ice Queen Records)
If ever there was a need for some good dystopian pop, 2021 is the year. And thankfully Palm Ghosts heard the call.
The band’s eight-track “Lifeboat Candidate” finds Palm Ghosts in a more propulsive, muscular rock mood, with tons more biting shards of guitar, arpeggiated synths and pulsating drums. It’s richer, with more textures and represents a great evolution.
If Palm Ghosts in the past veered from sounding like The Psychedelic Furs to Bob Mould with a dash of chilly paranoia from The National, this time they’re charting a distinct, coherent sound, albeit in heavy debt to ’80s new wave.
“Blind” is an electric jolt of political frustration, “The Kids” is a moody gem and “The Dead Inside” sounds as if Joy Division and Depeche Mode had a spiky little baby (dressed in a black onesie, naturally). “The Perfect Tool” is a dance song for Goths in Dr. Martens and “Revelation Engines” attacks political fanatics like the best Siouxsie and the Banshees track.
Singer and bassist Joseph Lekkas has never sounded clearer or more urgent, Jason Springman’s guitar is jangly and spicy, and returning drummer Walt Epting has created complex foundations for each song, biting into his kit in an almost tribal way. Guitarist and keyboardist Benjamin Douglas’ lyrics are sly and slightly unhinged. Some songs were stitched together with Lekkas in Nashville and Epting in New Jersey.
“Carry the World,” a very Psychedelic Furs-like track, is the most safe tune on the album, but the title song is the band’s most ambitious — a prog-alt-rock overstuffed beauty pushed by an addictive drum beat.
If Palm Ghosts before owed much of their sound to the past, they’ve broken out with “Lifeboat Candidate,” an album charting a course that’s both comforting yet dangerous. Or as Lekkas sings, “Safe as a gun under your pillow.” — Mark Kennedy, The Associated Press