8/10

After cementing themselves with a string of EP and album releases over the last decade, London's Palace have quickly found themselves as one of the more interesting outfits around the UK today. With a familiar yet distinctive style that channels a broad and textured atmosphere, but always within a contemporary realm, their work to date has been a magical journey of rich anthems and bold efforts, filled with heartfelt emotion. And now the four-piece are looking to continue that positive ascent as they deliver their third studio album 'Shoals', a record that gives us another heady dose of their consistent sound.

Throughout their tenure, Palace have remained a driven and adventurous group, always looking to explore new ideas and avenues in pursuit of where to take their direction next. And for 'Shoals', it feels like they have found themselves a happy medium amongst the warm and inviting indie-rock aesthetic that rarely feels the need to open up in any audacious way. While many other bands in their ilk would find the need to throw in the odd radio-friendly ditty to keep the momentum alive, Palace have such a solid grasp over their pace that this new collection hardly has time to falter and moves effortlessly from one vibrant offering to the next.

It is rare that we get to listen to a perfectly level record such as 'Shoals', which makes for a great listen as well. Palace have certainly matured their songwriting on this new release, and that gives us an incredibly dense and enticing array of tracks that compliment each other perfectly, leading to one of their more mesmerising LPs to date.