Stablemate - “Palm to Palm”
Prepare your nerve endings to send signals to your tired brain. You’re about to be whisked away into a world where things still feel like they matter. I think it’s far too easy to get caught up in the verse-chorus sameness of the day-to-day, while your frontal lobe goes numb and the autopilot of your basal ganglia takes over. I don’t know about you, but the predictability of modern life can lull me into stupor. Then, along comes a song so out of the ordinary that I am stirred back to my old, sensitive self… and I am grateful for the brave souls that create art.
Stablemate goes epic-big with “Palm to Palm,” their first single off their new, five song EP. I wasn’t sure what to think about this at first. It enters on such a large scale that I was as frightened as I was impressed. After the 40 seconds of a cinematically monstrous intro, the giant retreats and a friendly voice emerges from its shadow. A gentle guitar resets the mood for plaintive vocals that sing “Winter hitting me with all it’s finality.” Hints at more epic-ness filter in as a marching snare and reverb-drenched guitar slowly rebuild the emotional accompaniment that eventually gets back to its glorious wall of sound. Wow, this is what it’s all about! I’ve literally forgotten everything I was supposed to do this evening. I’m lost in this song, floating on a cloud through this beautiful sky full of rich guitars that wail like the wind as the voice sings out with the warmth of the sun: “How long can we hold on?” I want this grandeur, this feeling to last forever. I. Must. Listen. Again.