SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: PALM GHOSTS – LIFEBOAT CANDIDATE

Palm Ghosts
Lifeboat Candidate
Ice Queen Records

Generally regarded as the finest Manchester band of their generation, Joy Division spearheaded a newer form of music, creating a soundscape that was as horrifying as it was beautiful. Their tenure ended after two albums and a tragic suicide, but their imprint was felt on many bands on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Palm Ghosts, led by their propulsive bass patterns and tribal drums, seem content to carry on the narrative left behind by Ian Curtis, and Lifeboat Candidate carries the post punk banner into the 21st century.

For an album so urgent, it’s remarkably passionate, piercing and thoughtful — even the drum heavy “Easy Math” presents a decaying relationship by virtue of a thundering guitar coda. As if honouring the band that pre-empted the album, “The Kids” opens with a startling keyboard hook, before the verse kicks in and the gloom endures. Scintillatingly performed and produced with naked restraint, Joseph Lekkas’ voice feeds off the ennui, entering the title track with animation, agitation and virulence. And then there’s “Blind”, a pulsating rocker that ends not with a whimper, but a bone-crunching guitar note.

Ultimately, it’s the electronic tinted “The Dead Inside” that sounds the most radio friendly, but that’s not to say that the album is esoteric–it’s just that the more ominous qualities are what seal the record, since it establishes the world where Lekkas’ characters, compositions and vocals reside. And in a world that’s seen greater upheavals in recent months, Lifeboat Candidate feels weirdly comforting, like an unfinished Joy Division song reaching its appointed closure.

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