Doomin' Sun is the debut of Bachelor, a collaboration between two esteemed indie singer/songwriters with D.I.Y. roots: Ellen Kempner, leader of Palehound, and Melina Duterte, who makes music as Jay Som. Written and recorded by the duo during a two-week stay in a Topanga rental house in January 2020, it alternates between the intimate, grungy character of Palehound's sound and Jay Som's dreamy indie pop, sometimes combining elements of the two. On the crunchier side of the set list is the hooky "Stay in the Car," a Kempner-led song set in a supermarket parking lot. Its deep bass groove and the chorus's wall of guitar fuzz are topped off by some of the album's bright, harmonized vocals and lyrics like "I wanna know her/I want us to get along/Be the ice cream left out in her sun." Another distortion-washed track concerned with yearning and infatuation is midtempo earworm "Back of My Hand," which has Kempner channeling a music fan who wants to get closer to her idol, physically ("Could you hear me from the nosebleeds screaming every word?") and personally ("You date the beauty queens/I see their bodies in magazines/Sharp jaws, size-zero jeans/I skip a meal, I drink some tea"). On the poppier extreme of Doomin' Sun is the funky "Anything at All," which offers another hip-and-head-bobbing bass groove alongside spacious arrangements of keys, lurching drums, and spiky guitar riffs. Elsewhere, the hazy "Spin Out" is led by Duterte, and the title track offers up an apocalyptic acoustic fingerstyle ballad with Kempner's intimate, upfront lead vocals contrasted by Duterte's processed, fractured quasi-unison ("The sky is red, but we've got time and you are holding me"). The album's few guests are reflected in touches of strings by Duterte's partner and Routine bandmate, Annie Truscott (Chastity Belt), and drums by James Krivchenia (Big Thief), who reportedly reset the course of "Sick of Spiraling" toward something more driving when the duo weren't satisfied with their own experiments. While varied in style and arrangements, the album maintains a certain heartfelt, longing tone and unvarnished immediacy that engage in tandem with its solid songwriting core. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi

1		Back of My Hand
2		Sand Angel
3		Stay in the Car
4		Went Out Without You
5		Spin Out
6		Anything at All
7		Moon
8		Sick of Spiraling
9		Aurora
10		Doomin' Sun

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