Doomin' Sun

Albumbeschreibung

Doomin' Sun is a total charmer—vibrant and deceptively fragile, pretty and raw. It's a collaboration between singer-songwriters Melina Duterte (Jay Som) and Ellen Kempner (Palehound) that feels bigger and bolder than either of their usual low-key styles. Straight off, "Back of My Hand" struts with a hypnotizing beat and nervous guitar stutter. It perfectly captures the way young fandom is all-consuming to the point of obsession: "I'm your biggest fan/ Got your song in my head/ And your poster's above my bed/ You watch me sleeping ... You date the beauty queens/ I see their bodies in magazines/ Sharp jaw size 0 jeans/ I skip a meal ... I'm your biggest fan." Things take a deliciously bratty turn on "Stay in the Car" (sample cinematic line: "Hair in a tantrum/ Eyes like two shrieks of fire"), recalling the Breeders with siren guitar and big-shouldered, Kim Deal-style bass. There are '90s echoes, too on the dreamlike (read: Slowdive shoegaze) but surprisingly muscular "Spin Out," Mary Timony-esque slow jam "Sand Angel" and the early Beck-ish country lope of "Sick of Spiraling." Even the band's moniker shows a sense of delightfully eye-rolling Daria-'90s irony—the women named it after the TV show The Bachelor, which fan Duterte has aptly called "so weird and so straight and the marriage family values are so funny. It's really messed up." As Kempner told Pitchfork: "We were joking about how funny the name Bachelor is for the two of us, because we're just these two queer introverts, and I think with 'Bachelor,' you get an image in your head of this straight man and a bunch of roses." And while "kissing a girl" remained a novelty in the lyrics of even '90s "alternative" songs, Bachelor cuts like "Anything at All" paint complex, layered portraits of queer romance: "Stuck to her door/ Like a fly in her web/ The foot of my bed/ Shaking with her step/ She's forever approaching/ I'm forever in dread/ Wrap me in silk and bite off my head." It all winds down with the free-floating "Aurora" and dappled "Doomin' Sun," Duterte lagging just a second behind Kempner on the harmonies like a true friend who has her back. © Shelly Ridenour/Qobuz