Critic's Pick: Palace

Ten years after releasing their debut album So Long Forever, Palace found a new but familiar sense of freedom on their most recent album Ox. “Everything just feels very natural and like how it’s meant to be,” Palace drummer Matt Hodges tells the Scene. Lead singer Leo Wyndham, guitarist Rupert Turner and Hodges channel an organic, stripped-back indie-rock feel on Ox, the first album released through the band’s own independent label, Palace Presents. Although the London-based band continues to use introspective, personal reflections to inspire the album’s lyrics, songs like “Kid” and “Dream On” explore their new shared experience of fatherhood. Expressing gratitude for everyday moments and a more hopeful outlook on life, the themes on Ox contrast with the band’s previous album Ultrasound, which explored Wyndham’s grief over his wife’s miscarriage and how he approached that emotionally complex topic. But the constant on both albums is producer Adam Jaffrey, who also worked with Palace on their debut album. Through his deep understanding of the band, Jaffrey shifted Palace’s sound from the experimental electronic production of Ultrasound to the pared-down, raw yet confident and natural sound of Ox. 

8 p.m. at The Caverns

555 Charlie Roberts Road, Pelham