Having witnessed Palace’s solo emergence and progression from his debut in 2016 with ‘Master Of The Universe’ to his third album, ‘Rock And Roll Radio’ in 2020, you get that uneasy feeling that this development will plateau at some stage along the journey. Thankfully, this is not that time, and his latest album ‘One 4 The Road’ continues the upward trend but will certainly take some beating with future releases!
Palace, or Michael Palace to give him his full name, is a Lithuanian born Swedish vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who handles all the instrumentation, song-writing, and production on this album. It’s a collection of roles that he is comfortable doing and has produced a crisp, superb sounding eleven songs of pure joy. The often-used phrase, “All killers, no fillers”, is a perfect description for this release, as there is not one track that falls short of the high standard that he has set.
‘Fifteen Minutes’ starts us off, and by the second time you hear the chorus, you will be singing along and not giving a damn about where you are or who else is listening – chances are they will be joining in as well!
‘Westbound’ follows, and like before, the melodies are infectious, the riffs are delicious, and the whole song is a monument to what we loved, and do love, about eighties sounding Rock. This feeling is amplified with ‘Too Old For This’ and ‘Money Can Kill’, which shows how much Palace has a finely- tuned ear for this style, with some delightful musical themes and clever lyrics.
Slowing down proceedings with ‘The Driver’, the tempo rises again with ‘Time Crisis’, and if I had to name a favourite, it would be this one, although ‘Cancel The Flight’ gives it one hell of a run for its money.
It’s easy to lose sight that Palace also plays every instrument on this album, and the job he does is nothing short of superb. Keyboards, guitars and drums are all blended into a perfect mix of eighties Rock music; however, it’s much more than that. Listen carefully, and you’ll pick out elements of Hard Rock, Melodic Rock and tendrils of Pop and Country, all carefully combined to make a smooth hybrid of styles that tantalises and pleases the musical palette.
This album is the kind that makes you stop and listen, and in today’s hectic world, that takes some doing!
Reviewer: Pete Arnett
Label: Frontiers
Genre: Melodic Rock
Reviewed In Issue #99
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