Ashley Stacey – Palace Pier

Release Date – 15th March 2021

Words: Sam Cooke

Today I’m taking about another gem he’s decided to gift us all, ‘Palace Pier’. A song you could only assume was written about a British seaside town. Taking us through the day, Ashley uses his incredible voice and instrumental skills to deliver a performance you could genuinely liken to a little old band named The Beatles. It’s always hard to talk about these sort of tracks without getting flustered, sometimes you come across a song so relatable and widely understood it just takes your breath away, and this is the true talent of an amazing writer like Ashley Stacey, to not only engage the listener in a story but create one many can see in their minds eye the second they words start flowing. 

But it’s more than the words with this song, every sound is perfectly placed, the words delivered so clearly with such a pitch you could genuinely get confused for an 90’s classic with this one. Even the instrumental immediately makes me relate to another time, one of tie-dye t-shirts and ice creams in the sunshine.

But everything I’ve mentioned this far is nothing but the surface, Ashley tells an amazing story at the same time as capturing all our hearts once again. I don’t want to spoil it because, well no one likes spoilers do they, all I’ll say is this: never in my life have I heard the word ‘Tinnies’ sung with the enthusiasm we get here or the honey smooth vocals that send it to you in the first place. 

Honestly, I feel blessed. Every time I listen to Ashley Stacey I’m amazed, every song blows the lids on what level you feel he’s at so far in his short career. Once again, don’t forget his name, don’t forget the talent, there’s something really special coming from him every time and how often can you genuinely say that, knowing that every song he releases is going to be better than every other song you heard that day, and even better than all of his previous works. Those of you who read my last review on Ashley will know, that’s quite the compliment from me. His 2020 album ‘The Sun Still Shines On You’ is my personal favourite of the year.