Palm Trees and Power Lines is the second studio album by American rock band Sugarcult, released on April 13, 2004, through Fearless and Artemis Records. A year after the release of their third studio album Start Static (2001), Kenny Livingston became their new drummer. Shortly afterwards, they started writing new material for the follow-up album. Recording started in March 2003 and ended in September 2003, in between various tours. Sessions were held at Full Kilt Studio and Third Stone Recording, both in North Hollywood, California, with producer Gavin MacKillop. Palm Trees and Power Lines is a pop-punk and power pop album that recalled the work of Blink-182.

Palm Trees and Power Lines received mixed reviews from music critics, some praising the quality of songwriting, while others felt that the music was uninspiring and lacked originality. It peaked number 46 on the Billboard 200. Following the album's recording, the band went on a headlining tour of the United States and supported Good Charlotte in Japan and the United Kingdom. Following another support slot, this time for MxPx and Simple Plan, "Memory" was released as the album's lead single in March 2004. The band then went on headlining stints of the US and Japan, leading into an appearance on the Warped Tour. "She's the Blade" was released as the second single form the album in August 2004.

Background and production

Sugarcult released their third studio album Start Static in August 2001, which had two successful singles "Stuck in America" and "Bouncing Off the Walls", through Ultimatum Music in the United States and Epitaph Records in Europe. With Livingston's arrival, the group was impressed by his skill level and inspired the members to improve their own skills on their respective instruments. By this point, frontman Tim Pagnotta had accumulated 16 new songs, with which he was hoping to expand on the "moodier" tracks from Start Static.

Pre-production was done at Studio 9 in Los Angeles, lasting for three weeks. Recording took place between March and June 2003 a view that Pagnotta saw as a combination of "beauty and harsh reality co-existing." DeSantis referred to the album as a "document of the end of our innocence; we had toured for over 2 years non-stop and kind of became alienated from our old selves".

Tracks 1–5

"She's the Blade" was written when Pagnotta was playing his guitar in his bedroom. He was noodling with a chord progression that he thought was reminiscent of a transcending keyboard part – which he had admiration for Elvis Costello's attempts at this, namely on his track "Radio Radio". Pagnotta began singing melody lines over his chosen progression until he came up with the lyric "She's the blade and you're just paper", with the rest of the song falling into place afterwards. DeSantis visited Pagnotta and the pair worked on guitar parts, one of which eventually became a keyboard part that Rechtshaid would play on the final recording. Early versions of the song included an intro guitar riff but was scrapped in favour of Livingston's count-in. Similarly the track used to have a middle section of 12-bars that Pagnotta referred to as "bad classic rock", which was removed at MacKillop's insistence. On the final recording, a friend of the band contributed what Pagnotta referred to as"sounds with his guitar that sounded like animals dying." Following this, the group supported Good Charlotte on their tour of the United Kingdom, before supporting them again on a tour of Japan in January 2004. During the same month, the band filmed a music video for "Memory". On January 15, the band signed to Fearless Records. In January and February, the band supported MxPx and Simple Plan on their co-headlining US tour. The music video for "Memory" was posted online on March 11, 2004. The song was released to radio on March 16; the CD single featured "Blackout" and an acoustic version of "Memory".

After being originally scheduled for release on March 9,

The group had to cancel the first week of touring for the album due to Pagnotta suffering from tinnitus. When touring restarted, the band did a round of acoustic shows; their headlining US tour continued into May, when they embarked on a Japanese tour. Following the release, the band performed on the Warped Tour between mid July and mid August. "She's the Blade" was released to radio on August 31; The computer-generated video sees the group acting as doctors and operating on a girl; Pagnotta likened the clip to Weird Science (1985). The group closed the year supporting Blink-182 on their European tour. The band headlined the US Take Action Tour in February and March 2005, followed by another support slot for Green Day on their Japanese tour. They released their first video album, Back to Disaster, in November 2005, which featured footage from the previous few years of touring.

Reception

Palm Trees and Power Lines was met with mixed reviews from music critics. AllMusic reviewer Johnny Loftus said it "might not be as direct" as their past releases, "meaning they want to trade a bit of the bubblegum for some mall-punk songwriting cred". He added that the "hooks are more murky [...] perhaps the bandmembers are aiming for some 'seriousness' this time around". PopMatters Stephen Haag felt that it "strives for the growth attained by the above-mentioned band, but comes up short". He explained that the reason was all the "too much damn moping". He added that acts like Sugarcult are not "popular for their introspection; they're popular for their guitar hooks and general catchiness".

DJ of CMU Daily wrote that while it had "few surprises on this long player, but there's plenty of satisfying tracks and much evidence of a progression in the Californian band's sound". The staff at Modern Fix saw it as a "strong" effort from the band, who "keeps it sweet with some dreamy lyrics for the younger fans, while touching on a hard edge for the older listeners". Melodic writer Andrew Ellis said that apart from a " few obligatory ballads which are just ok, this sweetheart of a CD shows that the band deserves to become an even bigger player in the game of major label rock".

Track listing

All lyrics by Tim Pagnotta, all music by Pagnotta and Sugarcult.

Sugarcult

  • Tim Pagnotta – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
  • Marko DeSantis – lead guitar
  • Airin Older – bass, vocals
  • Kenny Livingston – drums

Additional musicians

  • Tim Cullen – additional vocals
  • Alain Johannes – additional guitar
  • John Nooney – keyboards
  • Ariel Rechtshaid – keyboards
  • Trent Slatton – programming

Production

  • Gavin Mackillop – producer, recording; mixing <small>(tracks 6, 8, 10 and 11)</small>
  • Nick Condodina – enhanced CD footage
  • Sim Klugerman – enhanced CD footage
  • Sugarcult – enhanced CD footage
  • John Logsdon – enhanced CD editing
  • Piper Ferguson – band photos
  • Lisa Johnson – band photos
  • Yoshika Horita – band photos
  • Gregg Kulick – art direction, design
  • Tom Lord-Alge – mixing <small>(tracks 1–3, 5 and 9)</small>
  • Mark Trombino – mixing <small>(tracks 4 and 7)</small>
  • Alan Mason – mixing assistant
  • Evan Frankfort – mixing <small>(track 12)</small>
  • Brian Gardner – mastering
  • Wesley Seidman – assistant engineer
  • John Nooney – Pro-Tools engineer
  • Mauro Rubbi – Pro-Tools engineer, drum tech
  • Trent Slatton – Pro-Tools engineer
  • Tim Pagnotta – additional production

Charts

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References

Citations

Sources

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  • Palm Trees and Power Lines at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)

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