It takes a lot of confidence to name your second single ‘Step Up For The Cool Cats’, let alone put a picture of a guy in full gimp gear as the cover. Apparently Palma Violets have plenty to spare then because that’s exactly what they’ve done.
Running in the same vein as ‘Best of Friends’; it’s a track that’s not likely to get you to convert to Palma Violets if you’ve already turned your nose up at them. But for those who like Palmas or are willing to give them a chance, ‘…Cool Cats’ is a slice of frazzled indie-rock that has the makings of a song that would fit both a summers’ drive and a completely debauched evening.
Full to the brim of thrashing, frantic guitars around the ever faithful keys conducted by Pete Mayhew—it’s both mayhem and restrained, dirty and spectacularly clean and essentially built up around the juxtaposition the band is. Lyrically there are all sorts of things you could take issues with. Starting a song with ‘You drive my car/around the bend’ isn’t particularly creative or adventurous and yet they just about manage to get away with it. Their foray into turkey noises at two and a half minutes in is about as ridiculous as it can get—but it’s fun and serves to remind you to take it as seriously as they do… which seems to be not a lot.
Once again they’ve managed to transfer their live show on to record without losing the elements that make it great. Palma Violets have acknowledged that a lot of their charm comes from the fact that their music isn’t flawless and it’s certainly not polished and processed. It means when you hear ‘Step Up For The Cool Cats’ live and on record you’re not going to be disappointed because it’s the same—frayed around the edges and very much what you see is what you get.
Judging from this Palma Violets have a very bright 2013 ahead of them and I, for one, can’t wait to see what debut album 180 brings to the table when it is released on 25th February.
9/10
