Andy Palmer – Sometime Around

By Charlie Englar
Grimy, electric folk-rock would be a good place to start when describing the sound of Andy Palmer’s debut album, Sometime Around.
The genre-mixed intonation displayed on the disc blends beautifully with Palmer’s scratchy, deep and weathered voice. Bringing to mind a latter-day Bob Dylan (as opposed to current-day, almost not understandable Dylan) and Ben Harper, Palmer’s voice is the perfect canvas to house the different musical colors and strokes.
Serene backing vocals by Sheryl Renee, varied violin virtuosity by Kailin Young and a Dan Kern-played Moog lend marks to the mixture.
The mid-tempo opening tune “Grrr” is exactly what the title suggests. Palmer displays lion-like growls while he dirtily tells his lover “I can clean out a vault/in no time at all/and it’s all your booty/you’re who I do it for.”
Reeled back, powerful songs are a majority of the album, with “History’s Done” being a great example of the overall theme. This song finds Palmer at his Ben Harper-esque best; strumming an acoustic guitar and building his voice to a high, yell-like crescendo. The powerful line “when history’s done send the wind to me/tell the wind I’ll hear/sing a song for me my friend/ about eternal years” is a sturdy punctuation mark on a heavy song.
For a funk-fusion injection, Palmer and his band bust out the tune “Cripplegate”; an upbeat slyness filled with resonated guitar and thick bass lines.
Ultimately, it’s the strong lyrics and structure blended with the various musical sounds that make Andy Palmer’s debut a solid success.
andypalmermusic.com