Next month, Jay Som (Melina Duterte) and Palehound’s Ellen Kempner will release their debut album together as the duo Bachelor. They’ve already released two fantastic singles from the project, which is titled Doomin’ Sun, and now they’re back with another one called “Sick of Spiraling”.
Compared to the funky indie-pop of “Anything at All” and the jagged propulsion of “Stay in the Car”, this third single takes a sharp turn into folkier, more downtempo territory. Whereas “Anything at All” sounded like it could’ve appeared on Jay Som’s 2019 record Anak Ko and “Stay in the Car” felt like a bridge between their own unique styles, “Sick of Spiraling” sounds like a Kempner song through and through.
With brisk drum taps, acoustic strums, and a noodly little lead guitar lick, it sinks into a transfixing groove that Kempner’s hushed voice nods atop before it all eventually gets torn to shreds by a searing guitar solo. As it turns out, the band actually enlisted James Krivchenia of Big Thief to get the drum groove just right on here, so the song has a bit of his band’s flair to it as well.
“Ellen had the riff in her voice memos for a while, and had originally imagined it as a slow kinda melancholic song,” the band said in a statement. “Once we got together and listened back to the riff we heard it a whole new way as an upbeat driving song. After that, Ellen wrote lyrics inspired by driving on tour and the rush and anxiety of being completely untethered and unprotected on the open road.”
It’s another solid offering that’s quickly solidifying Bachelor as one of the most promising indie-rock acts of the year. Check it out below.
Doomin’ Sun is out May 28th on Polyvinyl Record Co., and pre-orders are ongoing. Additionally, the band announced last week that they’ll be joining Lucy Dacus on a leg of her Fall North American Tour.
