13. PalmistryPagan
This is my favourite record from 2016. It’s so fucking punk in my mind – it’s so emotional and direct! It’s like Dashboard Confessional, but instead of acoustic guitar on every song it’s the same synth presets – the only thing that matters is the pure emotional expression, the pure melody and the character of the voice. ‘Sip’ is a perfect song, when it goes a cappella in the pre-chorus I’m weeping.
It’s just a perfect record – everything on it is so good. I don’t think that people understand it. To me, it’s like a singer-songwriter record – it’s just that he doesn’t have an acoustic guitar. People will say, "It’s got the same sounds on every single song", but if you listen to a singer-songwriter record, there’s an acoustic guitar on every song. Everyone’s been spoiled by the power of the computer production sweet. On my record there are no sounds that have been repeated even once. And that’s not what Palmistry’s doing. Knowing him [Benjy Keating] a little bit, he’s just such a deeply emotional person and the lyrics I think are so profound. The organisation of the thoughts on the record are really cool.
