It’s 2019 and Pen Palindrome still makes rainy day loops and pleasingly sad songs with a guitar

Pen Palindrome sets the stage for catharsis with a series of soothing, subtly sad loops on Live @ Third Rail’s opening track, “Pavement". Taking her time, Palindrome’s airy vocals creep in with the words, “I can feel you. In my childhood home I still feel you.” After some skillful wandering, Palindrome dives deeper into her sound on the quintessentially indie track “Anna I’m Sorry”. Painting simple strokes on the bittersweet canvas that she has created, Palindrome sings “Anna I’m sorry, we couldn’t work it out,” and the result is convincing. The rest of the release is a series of similar, successful tracks, closed out by a nice III chord feature on “Song for Mozart”.

The word indie has changed quite a bit over the years, but applying the description to this release seems appropriate. There is real music being made here, a great achievement.

Standout tracks: Anna I’m Sorry, Song for Mozart

-Mike Dranove