The Gooch Palms: III

With summer about to start it’s high time to you start collecting your summer jams. You want to be prepared for the undeniable sensation of sun on your skin, summer cocktails and endless summer days of ocean waves with some rock n roll anthems befitting good times in the sun on the side. Leroy McQueen and Kat Friend of Newcastle’s Gooch Palms answer the call with their new album III.

Since 2016’s solid Introverted Extroverts and the endless touring behind the album, the Gooch Palms released four singles leading up to III. The follow-up to the endlessly rewarding Introverted Extroverts would be no easy feat, but the new singles Busy Bleeding, Marfa Lights, Summertime and Are we Wasted? delivered four stellar new songs, indicating that The Gooch Palms have been pushing their sound into new territory while amping up the charm and hooks that we so love about this band.

From the get go flip your mattress and break out your air guitar moves, once emerging from your speakers The Gooch Palms III will not let you listen while sitting down. Album opener, Today’s The Day starts things off with a proper fist-pumping anthem encouraging you to embrace the moment. It also reads as a declaration that beyond the release of album III there are new times afoot and unknown adventures that lay ahead for The Gooch Palms. Busy Bleeding wraps Leroy’s guitar hooks around Kat’s tales of over coming menstrual woes, unwilling to let it stop her, let alone get her down. Coast To Coast is a call out to the ocean that bridges Australia to the United States Pacific Coast. Bouncing between these two coasts album after album prompted The Gooch Palms to write a song about it. The lure of the ocean has always been an undeniable muse, the raw power and beauty drawing man to it’s water for salvation or redemption, a sentiment perfectly expressed when Leroy declares

“ They say home is where the heart is,

my heart don’t beat when it’s in- land,

Fuck that it pumps with salt water and sand.”

Part of the Gooch Palms appeal, is the interplay and dynamics between Leroy and Kat, on Are we wasted? the duo brings forth the stomp and fuzz buoyed by the band’s call and response vocals, exchanging the euphoric high one might get chemically with the elation one receives with true love. Yeah Nah slows the pace for a slow burn confessional, celebrating those times when you just drop everything. In this age of hyper productivity and endless deadlines, the Gooch Palms lay down a reminder that sometime’s you have to say fuck it. The song showcases Leroy’s croon, lending the song a personal intimacy. The band are able to shift sounds and moods on III seamlessly and with confidence wether it’s the sugar coated punk stomp of Burnout, the indie-lite tale of late night UFO watching of Marfa Lights or album highlight, Summertime, a nod to 60’s french Ye-Ye pop. Although III ‘s embracing of new sounds does slightly alter the musical DNA of the Gooch Palms, the evolution successfully allows The Gooch Palms to continue their confident march toward the front of the pack.

Pick up the album here.