Palm Ghosts: I Love You, Burn In Hell: Limited Edition Red Vinyl LP

Limited Edition Red Vinyl LP

"I'm always reminded of the phrase “If we forget the past, we are doomed to repeat it,” not because it reverberates with fear and dread but because it’s sometimes welcoming. We question a number of things but why some dwell on the past usually isn’t one of them. Film and television have a love affair with the past, but so does music. Now while the Nashville by way of Philadelphia’s Palm Ghosts has gone through a variety of shifting membership – settling in with its multi-instrumentalist vocalist Joseph Lekkas, drummer Walt Epting, and guitarist/vocalist Benjamin Douglas – the band isn’t stuck in the past, it lingers throughout it, grasping at elements, blending it into the sound it creates. Its latest release, I Love You, Burn In Hell (Sweet Cheetah / Poptek / Sell The Heart Records/Engineer Records) marks the fruition of that combination.

Throughout the past decade, the band has honed its skill, combining a wide array of textures into post-punk riffing, wrapped around electronic tones. Through its seventh album, nothing has changed, save for its maturation. Through I Love You, Burn In Hell, the band moves in a number of ways, through songs working through the band’s strengths. But in all honesty, there’s nary a point of weakness. Beginning with keyboard washes, the gloomy “Tilt” moves with a goth-like intensity, and singer Joseph Lekkas’ voice is awash through an array of effects that leads the band through darkness. But there’s more than a glimmer of hope through “Drag,” the band’s direct approach, brightly lit with possibly its catchiest song yet. The track is sensational in its pop delivery with an infectious melody that’s sure to stop everyone in their tracks. Guitars wind around the track while the rhythm allows Lekkas and Douglas to run vocal melodies around it from beginning to end.

But it’s “Machine Language” that offers nostalgic goosebumps, as if it’s right out of the soundtrack for Out Of Bounds, you remember, that 1986 Michael Anthony Hall film? Anyone? Anyone? The song moves at a thrilling pace, with loads of kick and keys right across it. It’s easy to move around it. But those same feelings lie through “Catherine Shackles,” but I’ll spare you the film soundtrack it would be comfortable and fitting within. Musically it’s affectionate and unyielding while at the same time keeping its guard up.

Where does Palm Ghosts fall in the grand scheme of things? Well, considering its past few releases were strong, showing continual growth, the band I Love You, Burn In Hell finds the group at its peak."

-Eddie Ugarte, Ghettoblaster Magazine