Palehound has announced You Sing Like You’re Joking for February 5, 2027, through Polyvinyl, following 2023’s Eye on the Bat. Katie Von Schleicher and Julian Fader joined El Kempner as co-producers on the fifth album. Lead single Natural Disasters has a video directed by Rachel Brown, who frames friendship and love as memories alongside images of impending catastrophe.
Palehound, the indie-rock project of New York-based musician El Kempner, will release You Sing Like You’re Joking through Polyvinyl on February 5, 2027. It is the fifth full-length album under that name, following Eye on the Bat from 2023. Kempner shared production duties with Katie Von Schleicher and Julian Fader of the band Ava Luna. Nick Hakim also contributed to the recording.[1], [2]
Natural Disasters introduces the album with a video by Rachel Brown, a member of the band Water From Your Eyes. Brown says Kempner invited the collaboration, after years of following Palehound’s music. The director wanted to depict love and friendship as memories that retain their joy after someone has left one’s present life. Abandoned houses and close friends holding hands appear alongside gas masks. Brown identifies the masks as a reference to nuclear-war imagery from the 1960s, used to convey a subtle and lonely sense of impending social catastrophe.[1]
The shoot had already been planned when forecasts began warning about a nor’easter. Brown says filming continued despite official warnings, and that the weather remained fine for most of the day. Natural Disasters sits fifth in the nine-song album sequence, following Incisions, Hourglass, The Midwest and Patio. Target, Color and Sum of Our Days come after the single, with Sleep Through Anything closing the album.[1]
