Palehound's new album 'Eye On The Bat' charts a 'before' and an 'after' - the danger of imagination, the agony of heartbreak and the pain of growth. How we can surprise ourselves - a documentation of illusions that are shattered, both by oneself and by others. A jumble of raw nerves unraveling amid swelling, driving instrumentation. It's the biggest – and best – Palehound has sounded on record.
From Palehound's critically acclaimed debut album "Dry Food" (2015) to "A Place I'll Always Go" (2017), "Black Friday" (2019) and then "Doomin' Sun" (2021) by Bachelor (a collaborative project with Jay Soms Melina Duterte), El Kempner's songwriting has always been generous and personal, reports from a deep inner world. On "Eye On The Bat", however, we meet Kempner again: a guttural roar; white-glowing and searing purification; a feverish and visual and painful presence.
As Palehound, Kempner's guitar playing has always been at the center of the project's discography, like smoke swirling around anguished lyrics. It's intellectual, trying to understand sadness in a grocery store or a parking lot discussion, explorations of the anguished depths of interiors. Introspection, retrospection—whatever you want to call it—has woven Kempner's songwriting together from the beginning.
The poetry is still present – full of pain and the creation of caskets for trifles – but it feels truly diaristic and authentic. In the past, Kempner admits to hiding behind poetic ideas, burying the pain in metaphors. But here El is at his most open and vulnerable. “I was trying too hard to figure out who I am—what kind of musician I want to be, what kind of person I want to be,” Kempner explains. “And now I just embrace my instinct and go against what others expect. These songs are really just for me. I was really intentional about processing every detail. For my own sake, actually.”