Palma Violets: 180 (Rough Trade)

 |   |  <1 min read

Palma Violets: Chicken Dippers
Palma Violets: 180 (Rough Trade)

It's possible to enjoy and maybe even admire this English quartet (who pose cheerfully by Liverpool's Magical Mystery Tour bus on the inner sleeve) because of their energy, the bellicose single Best of Friends and their enthusiasm.

But over the 11 tracks here on their debut album you are left with the overall impression that while they sort of like the Clash and garagerock and all that, they really want to be band of grand gestures like Big Country or Simple Minds.

There's a bit of early Teardrop Explodes too, but at this distance comparisons with the Libertines seem a little stretched.

So a decent first outing but you would hardly accuse them of originality at this point, and would hope they don't take the publicity they are getting too seriously.

On the evidence here they are just another pretty good English rock band. But then so were Shed Seven and we all remember what happened to them.

You don't?

Maybe that's the point . . . 

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Eb & Sparrow: Sun/Son (Deadbeat/Southbound)

Eb & Sparrow: Sun/Son (Deadbeat/Southbound)

After three excellent EPs, an excellent self-titled debut album and opening for Pokey LaFarge, Beth Orton and others, this Wellington-based five-piece around singer-songwriter Ebony Lamb have... > Read more

Space Case: Retrospective (Ode)

Space Case: Retrospective (Ode)

Just a quick acknowledgement here of this excellent double-disc collection of the three albums by Auckland's early-to-mid 80s jazz-rock outfit Space Case which formed around drummer Frank Gibson,... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

THE STAIRS: MEXICAN R'N'B, CONSIDERED (1992): Through the past, smartly

THE STAIRS: MEXICAN R'N'B, CONSIDERED (1992): Through the past, smartly

And suddenly, they they were, all The Definite Article bands. After years of single-name grunge outfits (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, Tad etc) the post-Britpop groups appeared with... > Read more

Dub Inc: Paradise (Naive)

Dub Inc: Paradise (Naive)

Although little known in this country, the multi-culti Dub Inc from France coming here for Womad this weekend have been around since the late Nineties, have played in over 50 countries and released... > Read more