Eye on the Bat
Writing with painful exactitude, El Kempner crafts a vividly rendered breakup album that’s always threatening to explode.
'Eye on the Bat' finds Palehound exposing their most tender emotions and embracing them. Read our review of here.
After three widely acclaimed albums of personal, cleverly crafted, '90s-derived lo-fi grunge-folk, Palehound's El Kempner decided to alter their approach a bit without changing their style. A self-declared breakup album, fourth LP Eye on the Bat was co-produced by Kempner and Sam Owens (aka Sam Evian) with input from bandmember Larz Brogan, who helped fulfill the songwriter's vision of a rawer-sounding outing that captured some of the energy of their live shows. Whatever they did to that end works splendidly with the record's mix of wry, self-depreciating, confrontational, annoyed, and wistful songs, which take listeners through the complicated emotions of a breakup that wasn't entirely the fault of the ex. Eye on the Bat begins with a dramatically stark and candid sex song, "Good Sex," which finds Kempner playfully musing over marching electric guitar strums about a time they were left hanging in a celebratory birthday corset and how jokes about good sex are ultimately in-jokes. With the album's mischievous tone successfully set, they move on to lithe rocker "Independence Day," which opens with the line "We broke up on Independence Day."
Charlotte Griffiths reviews the new album from indie rockers Palehound! Read the review of 'Eye On The Bat' here on Distorted Sound!
Eye On The Bat by Palehound album review: optimism and doubt combine through some great songwriting from El Kempner