JOHN PALUMBO

Hollywood Blvd CARRY ON MUSIC

Crack The Sky mainman channels his inner Syd Barrett.

Anyone who knows John Palumbo through his work with veteran US proggers Crack The Sky may be surprised by his fifth solo album. While his regular band have an expansive style, what Palumbo does here is a lot more inward looking.

Hollywood Blvd is a moody collection of songs that has much in common with Syd Barrett or Lou Reed. The pace is mostly slow and mournful, only lightening slightly for Funky Town, where Palumbo draws from late 70sera Bowie. However, it’s far from depressing, weaving a tapestry that uses Hollywood as a metaphor to allow a better understanding of the complex nature of the artist at the core of these 12 tracks. Aside from acoustic and slide guitar contributions from Crack The Sky’s Bobby Hird, Palumbo is responsible for everything on Hollywood Blvd. This makes it a deeply personal record thereby adding to the allure, as he enunciates lyrics such as ‘I’m a man on fire/My brain doesn’t know me as I was before’ (Man On Fire).

With Hollywood Blvd, Palumbo has created a psychologically disorienting self portrait – one that offers a revelatory perspective on his sense of realism.