Essex-based rock four-piece Palps are pleased to announce the release of their debut album ‘Black Heart’ on October 7th, 2022. Since its formation in 2018, this is the group’s most ambitious work to date. The follow up to the band’s 2020 debut EP ‘Letters To You (That I’ll Never Send), Black Heart sees Palps turn their eight-track album into a harrowing eight-chapter short story that highlights the daily struggles of someone navigating their poor mental health and how it affects not only them but those around them.
Across each of the tracks’ music videos, we are introduced to four characters, the story’s protagonist Matt, plus Rose, Charlotte, and the Plague Doctor. The story deepens and grows with every single release, with the room, at times tidy and decorated and at others cluttered or destroyed representing Matt’s mental state, whilst the plague doctor character represents his suicidal thoughts. Produced, mixed, and mastered with Jack Twiner at Pyramid Studios in Reading, every track on the album unravels and pieces itself back together song by song, yet somehow manages to end up someplace uglier and more uncertain than the track before.
Before the album’s release comes its latest single ‘Messages’, the fourth chapter of the album’s story, due for release on June 3rd. In the most emotionally fraught video of the story so far, protagonist Matt is seen to receive concerned messages from friends and family before reaching their breaking point. His demons and depression, highlighted by the Plague Doctor character lead him to drive to a nearby bridge where we are introduced to the new character Charlotte.
Speaking about the single, vocalist and lyricist Alex Gray says, “Single four is called messages because it is almost entirely made up of texts of support that I myself have received when I’ve been going through a bad time. In the videos, Matt has become distant and is ignoring texts from concerned friends and family. He almost makes a very severe decision before meeting our new character Charlotte.”
For further information on the band, visit:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/palpsband
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/palpsband
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