You can’t go far wrong with garage punk for garage punk is a genre that exalts itself in worship of the three minutes is more than enough rule and, these days, we all have a short attention span. Yet, Plastic Palms pull something else out of the hat and stretch the five songs on their album “Flip Haus” so that they no longer quite fit in the garage.
A bit of nihilism is expected when it comes to garage punk but that isn’t what is actually delivered as Plastic Palms – fronted by singer and guitarist Clarissa Ghelli – take an unexpected walk down art rock boulevard. Sure. it sounds like these songs should be sub three minutes yet they are not with some ironic lyrical discontinuity pulling everything randomly left and right instead and, as if that were not enough, further stretching your ears with tempo changes and downright quirky flourishes.
There is plenty to enjoy in this album and it does reward hitting the play button again and paying proper attention the second time around. The purists might say that garage punk should never ramble like Plastic Palms do and there is little doubt that all the songs contained herein most certainly sound like the result of period of detention in a small space but transcending expectations is always a good thing in my book. Plastic Palms do just that.
Best song: The somewhat psychotic “Boccedrome”
Verdict: Different strokes for dangerous folks.