Video Review: Palehound ‘If You Met Her’

By Sandeep Sehbi

Review by Sandeep Sehbi

First lets talk about Palehound.

Palehound has been around since 2013. Originally Ellen Kempner’s solo project, it currently features Jesse Weiss on drums and David Khoshtinat on bass. In 2015 Palehound won the Boston Music Award ‘New Artist of the Year’ which is pretty rad! Palehound has previously released one album ‘Dry Food’, one EP ‘Bent Nail’, and two singles ‘Kitchen’ and ‘Molly’.

The new Palehound single ‘If You Met Her’ is off the upcoming album ‘A Place I’ll Always Go’. Other artists currently on Polyvinyl’s roster include Deerhoof, of Montreal, The Rentals, Xiu Xiu and many more.

“You were young but you’ve got the answers”

The guitar intro to ‘If You Met Her’ is stark and reminds me of Sparklehorse production in some ways. The vocals hit, well done harmonies. On top of a pleasantly trebly bass and chill guitar, and boomy but soft drums. Everything feels very crunchy. The shaker is mixed in great. The guitar gets loud for the lead. There’s some keyboard in the background, rotary sounding organ. Everything is very clear and angular in a very cool cutting way. The highs on the drums, the crispy bass, the slightly fat guitar, the vocals punchy without being abrasive.

Lyrically Ellen reminisces about a first meeting, an argument over doughnuts, all the while giving of a sense of somber reverence and remembrance telling the listener “you would love her if you met her.”

“That one night we fought / About the little stuff / We went to Dunkin’ Donuts / And you got the blueberry glazed one / And I laughed ‘cause you knew it was the worst one of the dozen”

The video itself is fairly simple and chill. It fits with the content of the song, which Ellen Kempner describes as “about my friend that passed away”. Its solumn, stark and sharp, just like a palpable pained reflection would be on the passing of a loved one. After a brief intro sequence of a few dimly lit shots within a mostly empty still home, the camera sets on a shot of Ellen in a car delivering the song first lines. From then its a series of cuts to various parts of the house, focusing quite a bit of a take of Ellen lying on a couch with an electric guitar. As the song builds, the walls seem to cave in with objects falling all around.