Nashville’s Palm Ghosts share new single ‘Young Empire’

Nashville-based band Palm Ghosts have shared Young Empire, the final pre-release single lifted from their anticipated new full-length album, ‘The Lost Frequency’ out November 19 (pre-order). On the song Palm Ghosts’ Joseph Lekkassays,“Young Empire looks at America as an over confident kid plagued by passion and lack of self control. A nation that imagines itself wise and righteous by its history and position but is more akin to a child with a gun.” You can check out the video for Young Empire via YouTube below or you can stream it here.

Young Empire follows up the album’s singles The Painful Truth and Bloodlight which which were released earlier this fall. The official video for Bloodlight was directed by Nick Hawl and produced by Ty Laird. It features Ben de la Cour, Jessica Bell, Charles Hager and Cole Morse and you can check it out via YouTube. ‘The Lost Frequency’ follows up the band’s acclaimed album ‘Lifeboat Candidate’ which was released earlier this year. ‘Lifeboat Candidate’ is a giant ear worm on unrest, isolation, and frustration. While the world has not changed much since then, Palm Ghosts’ new album ‘The Lost Frequency’ is different. It is an album lost to the pandemic (literally it was supposed to be released last year). It hearkens back to before this life in stasis, back to when things were almost normal, which is what we are all clamoring for again – normalcy…a sense of calm after a year lost.  

The sound of an 80s prom in a war zone…located in the dead heart of country music, Nashville, TN. That is the sound and spirit of Palm Ghosts, as far from the honky-tonks and pedal taverns of their adopted city as one can  get. More at home in rainy Manchester or blustery Berlin, the quartet weaves  early cinematic dream pop and new wave with brooding post punk. Embracing their 80’s idols, like New Order, The Cure, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, and even Divine to name a few, these Nashville transplants released 2018’s ‘Architecture’. Since then, they have built upon that release with a  steady stream of songs invigorating the modern era with the 80’s youth ethos.  

In that sense, the music of ‘The Lost Frequency’ feels almost whimsical and celebratory, at least less antagonistic and snarky than ‘Lifeboat Candidate’ felt, but it certainly is nostalgic and less like a war, more like a prom. However, the lyrics still bring confrontation to the forefront, and remind us  that normalcy is still devastating. 

The album opener on ‘The Lost Frequency’, Bloodlight, imagines global warming as a  crime scene. Then, Young Empire spryly scolds American culture as a stubborn, petulant child before jumping back to global destruction themes in The Painful Truth. These songs could be a trilogy, as if the world were a  disco ball smashing to the ground over which dancers continue to tread, oblivious to the cutting shards.  

All this stasis, this waiting around and growing impatience, means the band has a huge backlog of new music to unleash, and if you still need convincing that you don’t need to be a prom wallflower and can get on the dance floor. 

‘The Lost Frequency’ tracklist 

1. Bloodlight 
2. But Under The Tenuous Ether Rest Soundly 
3. In Monochrome 
4. Nightsong 
5. Toy Mind 
6. Young Empire 
7. The Painful Truth 
8. John Car

Palm Ghosts tour dates
11.18 – Nashville, TN @ The 5 Spot (Record Release Show) 
12.02 – Indianapolis IN @ Black Circle Brewing
12.09 – Lafayette LA @ Freetown Boom Boom Room
12.10 – Austin TX @ Swan Dive
12.11- San Antonio TX @ The Mix 
12.12 – Dallas TX @ Three Links
12.16 – Nashville TN @ 5 Spot 
01.19 – Charlotte NC @ Evening Muse, 
01.20 – Knoxville TN @ Preservation Pub