Ellen Kempner, who records as Palehound, and Melina Duterte, a.k.a. Jay Som, had long been friends and admired each other’s songwriting, so in early 2020, they got together and recorded the songs that would become Bachelor’s debut album, “Doomin’ Sun.” It’s an album that’s born of friendship and care and love, and you can hear that in every one of these 10 songs. It all sounds like a fun hang-out, but also like they pushed each other—as good friends can—to bring their best to the songs, in the lyrics, their vocals, their playing. Kempner and Duterte are both so talented at creating beautiful songs with catchy melodies and incredible grooves, and “Doomin’ Sun” really shows off those talents: every song on this album has a riff, a lyric, a vocal line, or a drumbeat that’s unexpected but perfectly placed.
“Moon” is one of my favorites on the album, partially because it features one of those grooves common to Jay Som and Palehound that sound so vibrant and right, you wish they could just keep going, evolving, shifting, with a guitar scrawling neon-bright strokes all over sections of the song. “Moon” is also one of a handful of gorgeous love songs on the album. Duterte sings about missing her partner, “You’ve been away for a week or two/after everything that we’ve been through/slept on your side of the bed again/talk to the moon just to have a friend.” And later, a sweet vignette: “On the couch and we’re full of love/You’re coming down and I’m staring off/the window’s open and I see you too/A second chance when I think of you.”
The title track, too, is another incredible song. “Doomin’ Sun” is built on a fingerpicked acoustic guitar riff and Kempner’s whispered vocals (and Duterte’s background/voicemail-fidelity vocals), and their lyrics about the planet’s slow death. “End of the earth will set it free/but we’ve got time/and you are holding me/we gave our bodies to the birds and bees/and now they’re falling from the sky/in threes.” Near the end of the song, a siren-like violin (from Annie Truscott) comes in, raising the anxiety level, as Kempner and Duterte sing, “End of the earth will set it free/but we’ve got time and you are holding me.” It’s a heartwarming sentiment: so much of the world is disappearing, or will disappear, and won’t ever come back, but we can still draw courage from each other.