Virginia trio Palmyra is in the midst of a new beginning: Today (January 22), the group announced Restless, their debut album for new label home Oh Boy Records. Arriving today is the single “Shape I’m In,” which sees the band’s Sasha Landon sorting through their bipolar diagnosis. A press release describes the track as the album’s “centerpiece.”
Landon says of the song:
“I remember first showing an early version of ‘Shape I’m In’ to Mānoa and Teddy in the basement of Mercury Lounge in New York City, and trying (and failing at the time) to figure out how to distill the message into something less chaotic. I was trying to make sense of the symptoms of a Bipolar diagnosis — intrusive thought loops, sleeplessness, manic depression — and how that was impacting and rapidly changing my relationships with folks I love. As the song grew during our performances and in the studio, we realized what ‘Shape I’m In’ needed wasn’t big changes to distill a message; it needed us to make an arrangement and performance that could capture that feeling of not being able to make sense of the world around you.”
A press release describes the album’s songs as “compulsive and immediate, true-to-life testimonials from three very good songwriters figuring out existence in real-time in verse,” adding, “These are songs to be sung or shouted out loud, to be coveted as anthems as we try to make our own way from whatever shape we’re in toward whatever shape we hope to become.”
Additionally, the band also announced a new run of tour dates from March to May. That includes an album release show at Charlottesville, Virginia’s Jefferson Theatre on the album’s release day, March 28.
Listen to “Shape I’m In” above, and find the Restless cover art and the band’s upcoming tour dates below.