Palehound — whose music was recently named among Exclaim! staffers' favourite love songs — have announced plans for their follow-up to 2019's Black Friday. Fourth studio album Eye on the Bat is out July 14 on Polyvinyl.
"It's about me, but it's also about me in relation to others," bandleader El Kempner said of their first new album since the onset of the pandemic. "After hiding for so long — staying inside and hiding your life and hiding yourself from the world — I was ready. I think I flipped."
The album's lead single, arriving today alongside a video by Brittany Reeber and Adam Kolodny, is a standard Palehound fare, which is to say it's more of precisely what their fanbase wants and expects.
Kempner said of the track:
"The Clutch" is the very first song I wrote for this album, back in 2020 right when lockdown started. I had been on a tour that was sliced in half by the onset of the pandemic and we had to apocalypse road trip back to New York across the country from Oregon, where our next show had been scheduled for. While that was happening, I was also having a triggering romantic experience with somebody I didn't know too well, and by the time I got home my whole body seemed to be spinning in turmoil. Writing and producing this song grounded me and helped me process a new future and self that I hadn't anticipated.
Watch the video for "The Clutch" below, where you can also find the Eye on the Bat tracklist.
Last year, Kempner teamed up with Jay Som's Melina Duterte to release their debut album as Bachelor, Doomin' Sun.
Eye on the Bat:
1. Good Sex
2. Independence Day
3. The Clutch
4. Eye on the Bat
5. U Want It U Got It
6. Route 22
7. My Evil
8. Head Like Soup
9. Right About You
10. Fadin
"It's about me, but it's also about me in relation to others," bandleader El Kempner said of their first new album since the onset of the pandemic. "After hiding for so long — staying inside and hiding your life and hiding yourself from the world — I was ready. I think I flipped."
The album's lead single, arriving today alongside a video by Brittany Reeber and Adam Kolodny, is a standard Palehound fare, which is to say it's more of precisely what their fanbase wants and expects.
Kempner said of the track:
"The Clutch" is the very first song I wrote for this album, back in 2020 right when lockdown started. I had been on a tour that was sliced in half by the onset of the pandemic and we had to apocalypse road trip back to New York across the country from Oregon, where our next show had been scheduled for. While that was happening, I was also having a triggering romantic experience with somebody I didn't know too well, and by the time I got home my whole body seemed to be spinning in turmoil. Writing and producing this song grounded me and helped me process a new future and self that I hadn't anticipated.
Watch the video for "The Clutch" below, where you can also find the Eye on the Bat tracklist.
Last year, Kempner teamed up with Jay Som's Melina Duterte to release their debut album as Bachelor, Doomin' Sun.
Eye on the Bat:
1. Good Sex
2. Independence Day
3. The Clutch
4. Eye on the Bat
5. U Want It U Got It
6. Route 22
7. My Evil
8. Head Like Soup
9. Right About You
10. Fadin