Living On Dust & Pills - Palace Winter Return With “Top of the Hill (feat. Lowly)”
Last winter, Palace Winter’s Carl Coleman was living on the volcanic island of Tenerife. At the center of the island, towering eternally over the colorful walls of the idyllic resort’s outdoor pool, stood Mt. Tiede.
“I was walking around this weird volcano island. The retro hotel was like a forgotten paradise resort. The whole thing felt like a Lynchian alternate reality.”
“I began to think of the volcano as a metaphor for our lives: volatile, mysterious, beautiful, dangerous. No matter where you were on the island, you could see it. Looking down on us. Asleep. But at any moment, it might wake up and destroy everything”
says Coleman of the volcano’s presence.
Thus, in a long-distance correspondence between him and Palace Winter’s other half - Caspar Hesselager in Copenhagen - “Top of the Hill” was born. With powerful waves of synthesizers and hints of hip-hop inspired drums, Coleman sets his fears of relationship fallout on the stage of the island.
The higher Coleman climbs up the slopes of his relationship, the closer he gets to the boiling lava inside of him - the destructive forces that can awake from slumber at any moment, and send him tumbling down.
Adding to the sweeping, colorful soundscape of Palace Winter’s lead single is Soffie Viemose of Danish dream-pop outfit Lowly.
“Top of the Hill” also arrives with the announcement of Palace Winter’s third LP ...Keep Dreaming, Buddy, to be released on October 23. The themes of the album follow in lockstep with those of the lead single. While Coleman was writing lyrics in Tenerife, Hesselager was locked in his studio in Copenhagen, searching for inspiration in less obvious places, searching for unexplored territory.
The resulting sound is unquestionably Palace Winter, yet is drawing on influences from hip-hop to soul, and blues. Don’t get us wrong, Hesselager’s synths, and the duo’s harmonies take front and center. But this massive album has a fair share of easter eggs. Be excited ;)
