Punk Rock Ist Nicht Tot

Formed in 2008 Chapel Club have spent the last couple of years building up a considerable fan base and garnering a fair amount of radio play on some of the UK’s biggest stations, including BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC 6Music, XFM and NME Radio. Planned first single Surfacing was even declared by the excitable Zane Lowe as the ‘hottest record in the world’ though it never actually got released due to copyright wrangles over the use of ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’ in the chorus. Now the London based five piece unleash their highly anticipated debut longplayer ‘Palace’.

The album kicks off with an unnecessary ‘intro’ before launching into the first proper song, the aforementioned ‘Surfacing’. What follows is an exquisite collection of dark, atmospheric, brooding electro pop songs that fall somewhere between how Editors would sound if they weren’t so serious and how White Lies would sound if their heads weren’t so far up their arses, with vocals supplied by Ian McCulloch. Highlights, other than the singles (which by the way were ALL named ‘hottest record in the world’ by Zane Lowe), include ‘Blind’ and ‘White Knight Position’ which is one if the faster tracks on the album. With a nice bassy drum sound complimenting the deep melodic vocals of Lewis Bowman, ‘Palace’ is a really good album but it could have so easily been a great album; Chapel Club are at their best in songs like ‘All The Eastern Girls’ when they let themselves go and the guitars soar, but I can’t help feeling that on too many of the tracks here they are too restrained, like the guitars and drums could explode in places but the production is holding them back. I bet they’re awesome live!7/10

Mark Cousens

Out now on Interscope

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