Indie rock group Palehound have released a new single entitled “Worthy,” off of the group’s upcoming album Black Friday, which is set to be released off the Polyvinyl Record Co. The new track focuses on self-love while the music video shows an empowering love story built off of body positivity to compliment the track’s lyrics.
“Worthy” is shot in a vintage style format, following the lead singer Ellen Kempner and an unknown lover who covers their face with a knitted face mask throughout the video. At the end of the video Kempner joins the lover by putting on the facemask herself and embracing the figure.
Lyrically the themes deal with Kempner’s insecurities and fears as she does not feel “worthy,” of the romantic partnership she hosts. “And I’ve won over your mother, darling/And I’ve won over your sister, too/And I won over your father, darling/And I still don’t feel worthy of you,” the artist sings in one verse over the band’s indie rock instrumental.
Like Palehound’s previous single release “Aaron,” the artist focuses on relationships that are often underrepresented in media, and is inspired by her own experiences. The masked character in the “Aaron,” music video appears in the latest music video for “Worthy,” as well.
In a press statement released by the Fader, Kempner elaborated on the character that appeared in both music videos:
“Aaron is a character that represents my partner, who is trans. It’s not specific to his experience though, the song is about change in relation to our bodies in general. It’s about learning to be comfortable in our skins, whether that means changing our bodies or mindsets. Robert Kolodny directed the video and captured this theme perfectly through portraying physical insecurity as living in an unruly, amorphous body and gradually shedding it.”
Another release that is likely to be featured on the upcoming album includes the track “Killer,” which was released earlier in the year in February. While no music video arrived for that single, a similar knitted face mask wearing character appears in promotional footage for the track, implying that it will continue to be a running motif for the album.
The albums singles have all taken a intensely intimate portrait into Kempner’s insecurities and relationships which make up a bulk of the singles’ lyrical content. The entire album, according to Kempner, is likely going to be her most personal project to date, building off from the group’s previous two releases Dry Food and A Place I’ll Always Go
“Making music’s always been a therapeutic thing for me—that’s such a big part of the reason why I do it in the first place,” Kempner explained in a press release for Under the Radar. “What I always want to do with my songs is to help people heal in some way, or come to some new understanding about whatever it is that they’re going through. Even if it’s just hearing a song and feeling less alone than they were before, that would mean so much to me.”
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