Album Review: Skinny Dyck, Palace Waiting

Time is hazy on Skinny Dyck’s latest EP Palace Waiting. And it’s not just because the Lethbridge-based country artist has a retro sound — a sound so lovable it could even convince the “I listen to anything but country music” people that there’s something special about this style of music.

On these songs, time is ill-defined because Dyck summarizes what it’s like to have little grasp on reality. It’s a feeling that’s all too familiar for the brokenhearted or disillusioned like the protagonist of “Ripe There On The Vine” who lets the possibility of love linger for so long that it becomes fermented or the one on the opening track “Hey Who’s Counting” who is desperate for a distraction so the days will pass faster.

About “TV Blue,” the EP’s highlight, Dyck says it was “inspired by the wood veneer of [his] youthdom.” Atop its shuffling beat, he transports listeners to a motel whose decor is likely stuck in decades past and is scented with mothballs. A nostalgic Dyck portrays somebody who is so tired of the present and looking for an escape and sings something that we’ve all been tempted to do: “tired of the clock in the hall so I threw it out.

”If you have no idea what day it is, there’s a place in this palace for you.

Palace Waiting was released September 22, 2022.
Listen to it here.