Montel Palmer

Greased up and caked in dust to slip down nice ’n dirty, ‘Love Getaway’ continues Palmer’s forays into slompy slow-motion groove and blunted mood across a dozen half-cut songs said to be “steeped in mind games, romance power plays and neurotoxin rollercoasters, with additional bonus strategies to dissociate with minimum dignity.” Make of that what you will, as it’s best to trust your lugs with Palmer’s brand of mulched, sozzled songcraft and hobbled beatdown, which brings a certain garage rock or badroom blooz to zones where it’s not usually heard.

Between the swamp hop of his title piece and the psych-funk grog of ‘Tears of Pure Joy’ summons comparison with Eric Copeland on too many benzos (‘Just What You Do’) or a sherm-huffing outsider bluesman (‘Monopoly’), with wickedest feel for grubby dub groove in ‘Talk To Me’, incurring on Sam Esh-like spangled blues in ‘Can’t walk Straight’, whilst also making room for stranger strains of spaced-out synth-soul in ‘Told You Not To’, and a fine stroke of sodden exotica like Mike Cooper strung out in Pattaya with Tin Man on the murky sleaze of ‘Mermaid Wolf Whistle’.
- Boomkat