Holly Palmer

Holly Palmer cut her teeth at the Berklee School of Music, and with her mid-90s major label debut, but kept them sharp working with icons including David Bowie, Allee Willis, Gnarls Barkley, Seal, Don Was, “fifth Beatle” Billy Preston, and Dr. Dre. She made a run of solo records with heavyweights like Howie B, Joey Waronker, and Justin Meldal-Johnson and duetted with Michael Bublé. Palmer’s colorful history speaks for itself—but her latest full-length, Metamorphosis is about what comes next. Both unflinchingly experimental and undeniably listenable, Metamorphosis is a mid-career reinvention. Conceived with producer Pete Min, and developed in the studio through improvisation and experimentation, the result is jazz-inflected art-pop, as warm, playful and inviting as it is uncategorizable, a record brimming with radiant supporting performances from heavyweights like Cuong Vu, Jeff Parker, Benny Bock, Jay Bellerose, and Bowie’s Blackstar rhythm section Mark Guiliana and Tim Lefebvre. Metamorphosis at times recalls the groove and vocal world-building of Tune-Yards while being also akin to the avant vocal jazz of Jeanne Lee’s Conspiracy. There are notable parallels with other contemporaries like Resavoir and Carlos Niño, though this is a profoundly personal album overflowing with Palmer’s uniquely expressive sounds and a sense of her own forward-thinking outlook.