Eye on the Bat

by 
AlbumJul 14 / 202310 songs, 29m 12s
Indie Rock
Popular Highly Rated
127

7.3 / 10

Writing with painful exactitude, El Kempner crafts a vividly rendered breakup album that’s always threatening to explode.

8.0 / 10

'Eye on the Bat' finds Palehound exposing their most tender emotions and embracing them. Read our review of here.

Palehound's 'Eye On the Bat' Review

A consistently solid record with its fair share of gems.

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."

8 / 10

Charlotte Griffiths reviews the new album from indie rockers Palehound! Read the review of 'Eye On The Bat' here on Distorted Sound!

7 / 10

Eye On The Bat by Palehound album review: optimism and doubt combine through some great songwriting from El Kempner

75 %

8 / 10