There are albums you put on while doing the dishes, and there are albums you stop your whole day for.
'Take Me To The Water' is the latter. The kind of record you press play, then press pause on everything else. Ally Palmer invites us into the shoreline of her soul, not with a crash but with a hush.Layered with soul-folk honesty, this album comes from a deeply personal place; and Ally shared a little of that vulnerability in our chat.
"I lost a special person in my life and I just took myself away for a couple of weekends and churned out these songs," she says. "I turned my phone off. I just needed to be quiet and still for a few days so I could get through what I wanted to process."
It's in that hush the songs arrived. Carried like driftwood to her guitar and piano. She'd lost someone close, and grief isn’t linear – it echoes in pockets and chords.
"I didn't want to rush this. The slow build-up of releasing the album, it's been part of letting it go." So we riff for a minute about the album's origin, and it's in these passages I hope to grasp her essence and share with those there reading this.
If I can't relay that to you, surely the lyrics of 'Old Friend' will make you pause. 'We don't talk anymore / But you live in me still / Like a ghost in the hallway / I try to keep still.' Goosebumps.
There's a purity to her storytelling, a steady flow of soul-folk honesty. A longtime lover of these genres, Ally says this record brings those worlds together more clearly than ever.
"In younger times of writing, it was just like, 'let's go for it'. Free songwriting, but now I feel like there's more direction. More focus. I've had some pieces in my back pocket for a while and wanted to pull them back in.
"I'm always collecting ideas, scribbling things down in my notes. Then they come with me to the piano or guitar."
Even collaboration was a tender test for the usually reserved artist. "I don't collaborate much," she admits. "It was a real test to open up in front of someone."
'Let The River', created with fellow musician Dusty Boots, was born out of jamming and a mutual love of surf, stillness, and sound. "We live similar lifestyles," Ally says.
"We jammed one day, just shared some ideas we'd been holding onto. It felt natural. We live similar lives – music, surf, ocean." It's in this dialogue, I'm brought back to Byron Bay for a second, imagining this being sung to barefoot twirlers.
There's something about this record that feels carved from salt and sun. You'll want to listen to it front to back. No skips. No distractions. Just music that reminds you to feel, to stay, to keep going.
The title track 'Take Me To The Water' feels like the centrepiece. 'Take me to the water / Wash away what I can't say / I've been holding on too tightly / And I'm ready to drift away.'
So, take this as your sign: grab your headphones, maybe a six-pack, and walk yourself to a sunset. It's time for you to let 'Take Me To The Water' carry you out and bring you back in again.
Trust me folks, some records don't just play – they stay.
Ally will launch the album with a free hometown show at Electric Mermaid Barbershop (Brunswick Heads) on 19 July.
