Palila - Children will be furious

An album could hardly start more sweetly – and at first you certainly wouldn’t associate that with an album title like “Children Will Be Furious”. But the intro is just the beginning of the beginning and it soon becomes clear that the Hamburg trio play their indie rock a little rougher and sometimes more aggressive than on their predecessor “Mind My Mind”.

The first single ‘Pure’, released last November, got things off to an almost stoner-rock start. But of course Palila are more than that and stand above all for great melodies in a compact trio guise, and the second song ‘Songs For Bears’ is a perfect example of this brute warmth – perhaps their little Canadian anthem, because that’s where they’ll be touring this summer. The three city dwellers seem to have a soft spot, or rather a longing, for nature, because using animals as a metaphor, symbol and reference doesn’t just apply to the band’s name, of course.

While they initially present a rather optimistic and hopeful picture of our society, the atmosphere gradually becomes darker. Whether in the cosmic spheres of ‘To The Sun’ and ‘Perry Rhodan’, the anything but nostalgically transfiguring retrospective in ‘1999’ or the interpersonal fractures in the six-minute ‘Orion’, which deals with interstellar chaos. Here, the spectrum ranges from human feelings to cosmic extremes. With ‘Mysterious Ordinary Man’, the album finally returns to earth and focuses on the inconspicuous moments that make up life. And on all the people who touch all our lives in passing, without us ever knowing what they think, want and are driven by.

“Children Will Be Furious” is their third album after their first two EPs and the aforementioned ‘Mind My Mind’ (2023) and ‘Rock’n’Roll Sadness’ (2021). But the trio consisting of Matthias Schwettmann (guitar & vocals), Christoph Kirchner (bass) and Lilian Stenzel (drums) continues to develop in terms of punch, pressure, groove and compositional density, creating songs that could really piss the kids off. Schwettmann in particular can’t stop writing songs and channels this creativity into various side projects, including his quieter brother Would, where he has found another playground for his ideas.

Palila cite bands such as Built To Spill, Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr, Nada Surf, Pixies and the early Smashing Pumpkins as influences, but create their very own sound, which has already landed them on the Orange Blossom Special and Rolling Stone Beach, among others. Of course, there are more small milestones ahead of them – and it’s certainly not just about writing the perfect indie song, but constantly expanding their very own, timeless song repertoire and giving children and music fans a warm dose of passion and fun.