New York-via-Boston indie rocker Palehound is gearing up to release their first new album in nearly four years; You Sing Like You’re Joking is out February 5 via Polyvinyl. The album was co-produced with Katie Von Schleicher and Ava Luna’s Julian Fader, and features contributions from Nick Hakim. The lead single, “Natural Disasters,” gets a music video directed by Water From Your Eyes’ Rachel Brown that’s filled with gas masks, abandoned houses, and best friends holding hands. Watch it below.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Palehound since the first record, so when El asked me to collaborate on a video, I was so honored,” said Brown in a statement. “My main focus was to capture the idea of friendship and love as a memory. I think it’s necessary to hold onto the joy you felt with someone, even if they are no longer in your present life, which I think the song paints so beautifully. I also wanted to present the concept of impending societal doom as something subtle and lonely. The gas mask was a direct reference to the nuclear war imagery of the 1960s. We planned the shoot before the forecast started talking about the nor’easter, but I figured that the weather was on theme, so we continued to shoot even with governmental warnings. Strangely enough, the weather was perfectly fine pretty much all day.”
You Sing Like You’re Joking is El Kempner’s fifth full-length LP under the Palehound alias. Their last album, Eye on the Bat, came out in 2023.