Palace Brothers

Q - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Moving, emotional and with a fractured vocal style reminiscent of a campfire country twang of old..." NME - 7 - Very Good - "...this is raw and affecting stuff...another finely warped addition to 1994's collection of cool US underground albums..." Rolling Stone - 3.5 Stars - Very Good - "...Palace Brothers' second album sounds as if it were recorded on a boombox in the back room of an old country home....[PALACE BROTHERS] evoke[s] the Deep South that Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Band romanticized..." Melody Maker - "...reluctant and grieving. This record is skeletal, spectral and un(self)consciously as mortal and sainted as anything I can imagine..." Entertainment Weekly - "...a collection of stripped-down country-folk....with its creaky-voiced renderings of simple themes..." - Rating: A- Mojo - Included in Mojo's "25 Best Albums of 1994". Spin - Highly Recommended - "...there is something in the Palace Brother's plaints that is raw, uncalculated, and noble. What gets to me is not the boyishness of Oldham's voice, but its weary wisdom; it has real character, play acted or not..." Mojo (1/95, p.52) - Included in Mojo's "25 Best Albums of 1994". Rolling Stone (2/9/95, pp.58-59) - 3.5 Stars - Very Good - "...Palace Brothers' second album sounds as if it were recorded on a boombox in the back room of an old country home....[PALACE BROTHERS] evoke[s] the Deep South that Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Band romanticized..." Spin (10/94, p.111) - Highly Recommended - "...there is something in the Palace Brother's plaints that is raw, uncalculated, and noble. What gets to me is not the boyishness of Oldham's voice, but its weary wisdom; it has real character, play acted or not..." Q (10/94, p.124) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Moving, emotional and with a fractured vocal style reminiscent of a campfire country twang of old..." Melody Maker (9/10/94, p.39) - "...reluctant and grieving. This record is skeletal, spectral and un(self)consciously as mortal and sainted as anything I can imagine..." NME (9/3/94, p.55) - 7 - Very Good - "...this is raw and affecting stuff...another finely warped addition to 1994's collection of cool US underground albums..." Entertainment Weekly (11/11/94, p.76) - "...a collection of stripped-down country-folk....with its creaky-voiced renderings of simple themes..." - Rating: A- Uncut - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] fly-on-the-wall documentary piece -- its songs come with chaircreaks, and fingers squeaking on the fretboard."

The second Palace Brothers album was originally self-titled (or untitled), though the moniker DAYS IN THE WAKE was appended to later pressings. The release is at once a progression from and reduction of the twisted lo-fi country-folk of the debut album. DAYS is essentially just Oldham, his cracked tenor and his acoustic guitar.
The songs aren't as unremittingly dark as on the previous recording, since Oldham injects a fair amount of stream-of-consciousness humor and light-hearted, elliptical song-poetry. The extreme sparseness amplifies the emotion in Oldham's voice and lyrics though, and on "You Will Miss Me When I Burn" the emotional desolation is harrowing, bringing to mind the best work of Mark Eitzel. The brainy non-sequitirs of the closing "I Am a Cinematographer" are evidence that there's more forethought than savant at work in Oldham's artistic process.|