It was a somewhat unexpected sadness when it was revealed earlier this year that Yuck were no more, but fortunately band leader Max Bloom is not allowing that gloom to linger as he prepares his new solo album, Pedestrian, which arrives on June 18 through his new imprint Ultimate Blends. Having already shared the title track, he returns today with “Palindromes”, revealing:
“This song is about how I got together with my girlfriend Anna, who also plays bass in my live band (and co-wrote two songs on the album). We were best friends for years, then she broke up with her boyfriend and we got together quite suddenly. It was completely unplanned, but when it happened it felt like a lucid dream. I wanted to write something to commemorate it (Anna has also written a few songs about it too), and after the darkness and grief of Perfume, it felt cathartic for me to write this song.”
Taking a jaunty dreampop palette, akin to Real Estate’s golden greats, Bloom invites us to sail along with him and his warming guitar through this waking dream state on “Palindromes”. Now heedlessly in love, he’s finally letting long-hidden feelings show, laying down his devotion in no uncertain terms, and noting that Anna is indeed a word that reads the same back to front – a simple fact that becomes a miraculous nugget in his joyous state. New love can be overwhelming, but in a pleasantly heady way, and that’s what Bloom manages to capture in the silken-threaded “Palindromes”.
Max Bloom’s new album Pedestrian comes out on June 18 through Ultimate Blends. If you’re in or around London, you can catch him at Hackney’s Oslo on July 2 (tickets), otherwise find him on Facebook, Twitter and Yuck’s Instagram.
