Album Review: The Palatines/Destroy Orbison Split

The Palatines 2018 album Death From Below was one of my favourites of the year. The Texan's infectious take on the pop punk genre makes me smile each and every time I listen to it. In February (yes, this is a very late review) The Palatines teamed up with fellow Texan's Destroy Orbison to release a four song split.

The Palatines have the first two songs on the split. The first being Oldage which we were lucky enough to feature on our fifth anniversary compilation earlier in the year. As you might have guessed, the song is about getting older and slowly losing your mind. The song explodes out of the blocks and gives you a huge jolt of energy immediately. I said when I reviewed Death From Below last year that The Palatines make me think of a cross between Face To Face and Teenage Bottlerocket, this thought remains true here – combining that 90s So Cal punk sound with modern pop punk music to incredible effect. It's powerful and it's really catchy. Exactly what I want in my pop punk. You'll Remember Me sees The Palatines venture down more of a street punk road whilst maintaining the catchy pop punk hooks. Starting off in a fast and furious manner with some much gruffer vocals, it's a raucous sing along from beginning to end as the band tell a story about a night out that was meant to go one way but disastrously went another.

Destroy Orbison's side of the split begins with the song 30 Something. Like The Palatines before them, Destroy Orison set off in blistering fashion on a song about growing up and remembering the fun times you have when you were younger. The tempo of the track remains high throughout and the vocals are delivered at quite the pace but this doesn't take away your ability to be involved with the song and to sing along. As a thirty-three year old man, I related to a lot of things mentioned in the song and do look back fondly on my twenties, that said I'm also enjoying my thirties a great amount. Destroy Orbison's second track is named Too Late and it opens with the most exquisite guitar riff that had me excited for the rest of the song. When lead singer and bassist Dan comes in you're good and warmed up to scream along with him. It sounds slightly more passionate than on 30 Something as he sings about having regrets and wanting to turn back time. The rest of the band add in plenty of whoa-oh harmonies to give the song another layer as well as giving a live crowd something to sing back at the band.

What a fantastic split we have here. I already loved The Palatines and they delivered two excellent songs but I'd never heard Destroy Orbison and now adore them. I guess that's the point of a split. You check it out for the band you know and then hopefully discover a new favourite. This is what happened for me.