Palace Announce New Album ‘Shoals’ Out January 21st Via Avenue A / Fiction

RELEASE NEW SINGLE "LOVER (DON’T LET ME DOWN)"

Today, London-based group Palace — who have built up a sizable international following on the back of Leo Wyndham’s emotive falsetto and his bandmates’ free-flowing, atmospheric anthems — announce their third album Shoals, due for release on January 21st via Avenue A / Fiction. The album announcement is accompanied by a new single and video "Lover (Don’t Let Me Down)". The band will also play their biggest UK, European and US tours to date next spring, including headlining dates at the O2 Academy Brixton, Webster Hall, 9:30 Club, The Fonda, and loads more.

Throughout this album-length meditation on fear, Palace weave together gorgeous guitar lines, forthright expressions of anxious uncertainty, and a masterful sense of space to create a record that pulses with beauty and reckoning. From the stillness comes tidal waves of sound; from cacophony emerges clarity; and following reflection, a sense of peace ultimately coexists with a surrender to spontaneity. At times it recalls Jeff Buckley’s stately ballads, at others the propulsive shoegaze of DIIV or the mountainous crescendos of WU LYF — but throughout it becomes clear that Palace have an unparalleled intuition for how to bolster a song’s intensity and deliver an emotional gutpunch. 

New single “Lover (Don’t Let Me Down)” is a shuffling waltz that juxtaposes pattering drums against aqueous guitars as it ponders the inherent risks of leaving yourself vulnerable to love. Its explosive choruses give way to a placid coda, the dynamic arrangements conforming to the visceral rhythms of panic before settling into a decisive conclusion. 

WATCH THE OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR "LOVER (DON’T LET ME DOWN)" HERE

Shoals is a profound and pensive album, boldly exploring some of life’s greatest questions over its 12 mesmerising tracks. The album deftly explores the interplay of three central existential dilemmas against a broader backdrop of wonder at the vastness and power of the ocean, concluding its arc with the stunning opus ‘Where Sky Becomes Sea’. Through diving into themes of the subconscious, dreams and existentialism, ‘Shoals’ is broadly a record about living with and processing fear. The album’s title is inspired by the seemingly unpredictable behaviour of shoals of fish, shifting rapidly in much the same way as our fears and anxieties of the world around us. 

As frontman Leo Wyndham explains: “It explores and questions what really is palpable and real - what really matters and what we become in death - and the fear of that. The fear of existing and the fear of dying. It's an ode to the power of the ocean and the majesty of nature and how sometimes they are the only things that truly feel real, living and breathing.” 

Shoals follows Palace’s 2019 sophomore album Life After, a stunning record with a clear message of hope. Its eleven tracks, which include the heart-wrenching “Heaven Up There,” are full of the melodic warmth and rich textures that have come to define Palace’s sound. It is an album in equal parts about loss as well as a manual to moving on, stronger than before. 

Having built a dedicated live following through relentless touring both at home and abroad, Palace played some of the world’s biggest festivals in 2019 including main stage slots at Mad Cool, Latitude and Glastonbury’s Park Stage before an autumn tour culminating at their biggest show ever at a sold-out Camden Roundhouse. The band kicked off 2020 by selling out their debut USA tour ahead of returning to the studio to start work on their third album. With a host of new 2022 tour dates confirmed and an incredible 1.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify, Palace are set to continue their enviable trajectory upwards through the best venues the world over. See below for the full list of new tour dates. 

Leo Wyndham, Matt Hodges and Rupert Turner released their acclaimed debut EPLost In The Night in 2014, followed by the Chase The Light EP the following year, their debut album So Long Forever in 2016 and sophomore album Life After in 2019.

PRE ORDER / PRE-SAVE ‘SHOALS’ HERE