Palmyra.

Jeeze, louise. I get so behind in this thing. Somehow, my life has suddenly gotten busy, and I had fallen into a bit of a rut as far as writing goes. Otherwise known as: writers block. The dreaded thing has been bothering me for weeks. To the point where I haven't been able to write my articles for my college journalism class, my college application essays (which is becoming a problem..) and the review on this band that I've been meaning to do for a few weeks now.

But I am crawling out of my rut (and slight procrastination hole) to talk about PALMYRA and their album Mis-En-Scene.

The album Mis-En-Scene is probably one of the most unique albums on my iPod. It's happy, yet at the same time, incredibly melancholy. It's somewhat poppy, yet at the same time mellow with it's mainly acoustic based tracks. Oh, and there's some synthy sounding stuff, and I believe a violin on one of the tracks. To put it simple: this album has something for everyone.

For some reason, I'm always thinking about the 90's when I listen to this band. I attribute this to lead songstress Gina Pensiero's smooth and (yes, I'll say it) soothing voice - reminiscent of indie stars and other singers of that decade.

One of my favorite things about this album though, is the lyrics. And to me, that's the part that matters most. A good song would not be a good song without the lyrics, and each song on this album has smart lyrics. Some of my favorite lyrics lie on the songs Comfort, No Where To Go, and Bad Kids (all posted below and available for download, thanks to the band!) Pensiero's vocals deliver these lyrics perfectly. They just make me feel.

This is a chill album. Perfect to listen to this time of year, when the cold forces us to stay inside and resort to our own minds for recreation. Listen to it when you paint. Listen to it when you write. Listen to it as you sit at your computer writing blog entries that you hope will influence people (such as I'm doing now...)

So all I can really say is that this band is worth the time it takes to click HERE to go to their myspace. They're also worth the 30 second download time to take a listen at some of my favorite tracks.

Nowhere To Go - http://www.sendspace.com/file/7oaqiv
Comfort - http://www.sendspace.com/file/y0zdq2
Bad Kids (as featured on episode 2 of OddTv) - http://www.sendspace.com/file/5clf4b

-Courtney Kaz