Review: "Took" - Jenny Palacios

Validation can be a double-edged sword. No one can deny the allure of having people pat you on the back, telling you that you’re great and talented and will go far in life, but there comes a time when that feeling becomes more or less an addiction, and we end up needing it just to see value in our own selves. Jenny Palacios’ newest single “Took” is a meditation on online validation and its pitfalls. Blending rock, alt-pop, and pop rock, this track is part melancholy and part hopeful, discussing the struggles we have with balancing our digital lives while simultaneously considering what it means to simply be ourselves, without the veneer of perfection and the puppet strings online spaces have on us. “Took” is all about questioning our self-worth in the digital world.

“Took” sounds like if you put all my favourite parts of alt-pop into a blender and blended it very, very well. There’s a little touch of everything in this track for those of you who like rock and alt-pop, and the gentleness of its instrumentals keeps it soft and earnest. For me, the song’s beautiful, slow-growing percussion is the superstar of the instrumentals, hitting the emotional highs with just the perfect amount of intensity that plays along with Palacios’ vocals, which are supremely elegant in their buttery smoothness. All together, the soundscape comes to form this super cathartic sound that has the air of a confession to it. The lyrics help to form that atmosphere, illustrating the narrator’s relationship with validation, although specifically from the internet. There’s a specific line that I really like, which goes, “took up the art of curation / my memories are all yours”, and I feel that it’s such a poetic way to describe how we are so specific in how we tailor our online personas just for other people to consume them. “Took” is a lovely, thought-provoking track that examines our relationship with faceless strangers on the internet, and ultimately wishing for us to find worth in ourselves rather than others’ opinions.

Canadian singer-songwriter Jenny Palacios is based in Toronto, Ontario. Her musical journey was encouraged by her music teacher mother and was bolstered by her involvement in her local alternative music scene. Connectivity is important to Palacios’ artistry, and that has gone on to influence how she works in her community; she’s worked alongside singer and recording artist Lauren Babic, fronted her own pop rock band, and has opened for touring bands such as PVRIS, Hawthorne Heights, and I The Mighty. Her debut single “I Hope It Follows You” released in 2019, which was followed by an array of other singles throughout the years. Currently, she is working on writing and co-producing her first solo EP. “Took” is Palacios’ first release of 2025, and if you enjoyed it, consider following her to keep track of her EP’s development!

Written By Alexa Leung

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