Let It Rock reviews "Palace Of Light"...

“… an array of fifteen pieces which offer a serious cerebral lash of critical whip and may cause a faint-hearted audience to suffer whiplash.”

 
Excellent considered review of the new “Palace Of Light” set from the Let It Rock site in Canada! Many thanks, Dmitry!

*****

BEAU – Palace Of Light

Cherry Red 2025

Protecting one perfect place where words and notes and sentiment combines, English singer-songwriter launches an offensive on cultural narrative.

Arguably, the only reason Trevor Midgley has never gone for a concept album is that he’s interested in various ways the ways of the world get screwed up, even though social commentary and historical excursion are recurrent subjects on most of the veteran’s records, opinions on different aspects of entertainment appear on his platters less frequently. Still, it’s too fertile a stratum of our existence, and Beau’s too vested in this process, to not warrant the artist’s specific focus on what’s going on there, behind the scenes and in full frontal view of public. Cue “Palace Of Light”: an array of fifteen pieces which offer a serious cerebral lash of critical whip and may cause a faint-hearted audience to suffer whiplash.

Beau may somewhat dim a melodic layer of his diatribes to make the lyrics hit harder, but the fierce ringing of Trevor’s twelve-string guitar and high-pitched vocals engage the listener just as effectively as balladry demonstrated by the Leeds troubadour on this tuneful cycle’s finale, simply listed as “The Song” and sounding as triumphantly as a musician’s manifesto should. It’s not an oath to preserve “the beauty that surrounds us every day” – we humans are merely more than a mole on the body of eternity – and it’s not a call to arms, yet it’s an emotionally charged summary of the album’s topics which span quite a few themes rooted in the same societal soil. However, whether we deal with purloining of predecessors’ works as exposed in the half-hilarious “I Plagiarise Beethoven” where quotes from the titular composer appear to amuse the aural spectator, blind ignorance of masses as outlined in the harsh “Twenty-Twenty Vision” where Midgley’s anger is as apparent as his approval is in “A Target On Your Back” where the opposite values get defended, or vanity of reliving past glories as highlighted in “Glimpse Of Venus” where his humorous stanzas rule the game, there’s no doom or gloom on display. And no reproach, either, as “The Joke” stresses rather sarcastically.

Nevertheless, the civil reveries of such folk-informed numbers as the ruminative “Green Hill” – the source of the platter’s title – and the convivial “Cuckoo Land” prove to be false, while “Cultural Appropriation Blues” feels funny and unsparing, as do “Celebrity Memorabilia” that entertains the divergent meanings of the word “anorak” and “Lost For A Cliché” which waltzes around deplorable linguistic compromises in the world of media. Of course, a couple of politics-lambasting cuts make an appearance here as well – wrapped, as is Trevor Midgley’s wont, in spirited sweetness – but in any case, “Palace Of Light” might be one of the most difficult Beau albums. And one of his most thought-provoking works.

***4/5