Palm Trees and Power Lines is the second studio album by American rock band Sugarcult, released on April 13, 2004 through Fearless and Artemis Records.

Sessions were held at Full Kilt Studio and Third Stone Recording, both in North Hollywood, California, with producer Gavin MacKillop.

Sugarcult released their third studio album Start Static in August 2001, which had two successful singles "Stuck in America" and "Bouncing Off the Walls",[1][2] through Ultimatum Music in the United States and Epitaph Records in Europe.

[3] The band then rented a rehearsal room and spend each day working on new material, writing all of the songs that would later feature on their next album in less than two months.

[13][12] The title for the album was the result of DeSantis standing in the studio's back alley, look up at the skyline, where all he could see was palm trees and electrical lines,[14] a view that Pagnotta saw as a combination of "beauty and harsh reality co-existing.

[3] Retaining the format of Start Static, Palm Trees and Power Lines consists of several uptempo rock songs with ballads placed throughout.

The tracks talk about the preceding two and half years of Pagnotta's life as a touring musician,[3] touching on the theme of being a traveller, determination to return home provoked by a relationship, with psychological and social struggles.

Pagnotta began singing melody lines over his chosen progression until he came up with the lyric "She's the blade and you're just paper", with the rest of the song falling into place afterwards.

"[9] The music of the track was influenced by Bright Life, a band from the group's hometown, who Pagnotta applauded for the usage of open chords in their material.

Livingston keeps time in the song using the edge of his tom, resulting in a clock-like ticking sound which gave the track "a nice ambient space.

[9] "Back to California", which had a similar structure to "Stay Together for the Kids" by Blink-182,[13] was written about returning home from touring solely to break up with a partner.

[3] When Pagnotta showed the track to Livingston, the pair started talking about Jimmy Eat World's use of hand percussion, which found its way into the song's intro.

It featured several stacked vocal parts and call-and-response harmonies during the chorus, which Pagnotta heard when listening to Carpenters albums during his childhood.

At the group's next practice session bassist Airin Older came up with a riff that Pagnotta said was a mix between "New Year's Day" by U2 and several Motown tracks, while DeSantis added stabs in the vein of British mod music.

"[9] It was the last track finished during recording, and was mixed by Trombino, which Pagnotta felt added a denser layer to the song that they hadn't thought about.

Unable to hear the key of the chords, he recorded a tiny bit and fleshed out the song during soundcheck with the rest of the band the following day.

Between October and December 2003, the group embarked on a headlining US tour with support from Story of the Year, Plain White T's, Jackson and Denver Harbor.

[19] The artwork continues the Californian theme of the title with an actress in front of the palm trees and electrical lines that make up the album's namesake.

[27] The computer-generated video sees the group acting as doctors and operating on a girl; Pagnotta likened the clip to Weird Science (1985).

AllMusic reviewer Johnny Loftus said it "might not be as direct" as their past releases, "meaning they want to trade a bit of the bubblegum for some mall-punk songwriting cred".

[15] Drowned in Sound writer Mike Diver felt that the band had toned down the "cheese and upped its angst", saying that have a "collective ear for a pop tune" that their contemporaries lacked.

[35] DJ of CMU Daily wrote that while it had "few surprises on this long player, but there's plenty of satisfying tracks and much evidence of a progression in the Californian band's sound".

[36] The staff at Modern Fix saw it as a "strong" effort from the band, who "keeps it sweet with some dreamy lyrics for the younger fans, while touching on a hard edge for the older listeners".

[37] Melodic writer Andrew Ellis said that apart from a " few obligatory ballads which are just ok, this sweetheart of a CD shows that the band deserves to become an even bigger player in the game of major label rock".

He praised the band's "knack for beautiful vocal melodies and well-rounded arrangements, [...] but in this form it all sounds too good, boring to me and interchangeable".

[11] Rolling Stone reviewer Christian Hoard thought that for each "woozily nostalgic or promisingly toothy moment [...] there's a torrent of youthful wallowing on its way.

[33] The staff at Spin wrote that there was "something kinda sweet about pop-punk bands that express their everydude empathy by being as uninspired as the kids they would love to reach".