Blums Releases Debut Album SUNK COST FANTASY via Take Care Records

Blums, the New York City-based project of songwriter and musician Kelsea Feder, released its debut album SUNK COST FANTASY via Take Care Records. The eleven-track record, six years in the making, explores catharsis, memory, and cycles of destructive behavior, drawing its title from the cognitive bias known as sunk-cost fallacy. Alongside the album, Blums premiered the official music video for the single JUDY, filmed in a laundromat and named after Feder's grandmother.

Feder delivers eleven dreamy art-pop tracks exploring themes of catharsis, memory, and the cycle of destructive behavior. Throughout the record, Blums plays on the concept of sunk-cost fallacy, a cognitive bias that causes someone to continue something because they have already invested their time and energy in it, even when doing so yields more risk than reward. Through confessional lyrics, she explores how she once viewed this self-destructive cycle through rose-colored lenses, and recounts what she had to do to finally break it. The album is an ethereal soundscape adorned with moody synths and sultry vocals reminiscent of early-2000s trip-pop.

The official music video for 'Judy' premieres today, featuring Kelsea in a laundromat, complete with an emotive dance number as she ponders traumatic familial cycles. Named after her grandmother Judy, the song reflects the ghosts we're all haunted by and the pain we pass on through generations. As the track builds, Kelsea begins to tug at the pain inside of her, finding a never-ending rope of laundry that she's forced to drag with her. The viewer flashes between vignettes of discomfort and joy, as 'Judy' concludes.

Speaking about the album, Kelsea shares, 'I took a really long time to make this, basically 5 years. There was a grunge trio band version of most of this record in 2022 that I basically decided was not what I was going for. My bassist, Kirk, is brilliant and I'd trust him with my life. He said 'Let's make the pop album you want to make', and we spent years throwing spaghetti at the wall. Making this was like a big messy collage. I give him a lot of praise for being patient with me while I took a lot of time to gestate and get clarity on where I wanted this project to go. The visual components are also really important for me, so even once the record was done, it took a lot of time to start compiling everything for the visual world, too.'

Arriving last month, 'Salty' rises and falls with the melancholy of feeling like you aren't what someone wants, but you still have yourself at the end of the day. The official music video, directed by Anna Burka, features the NYC musician in a Juicy Couture tracksuit in her apartment, reflecting on heartbreak and finding comfort in her own presence. Built on fluctuating synths and inspired by a songwriting challenge amongst friends in the scene, the track's digital twinkles and high-to-low vocals document a heartbreak with care and levity.

'Cashout' kicked off the summer with pulsating synths and a driving kick drum punctuating every cutting lyric that Kelsea delivers. Reflecting on distressing memories and searching for a release, she ponders the cyclical nature of the highs and lows we often return to. The song bursts into operatic vocals and a cascade of drum beats, mirroring the chaos of an internal struggle between wanting to live in the moment and being forced to remember the past.

In April of this year, Blums debuted with the winding and weaving 'Sinking/Soaring,' which chronicles the cyclical nature of self-torment. Inspired by Kelsea's stint as a jazz club hostess, the track is laced with mellow vibraphone and delicate keys, building into a melodic spiral. Alongside the song, an official music video directed by Ava Burka and Marianna Kamiaklioyis documents a hazy, disillusioned world of dilapidated houses and glamorous performances. 'Sinking/Soaring' turned the heads of Nina Protocol, Alternative Press, The Line of Best Fit, and more.

Blums is a project collaged out of fragments of time and every experience Kelsea has captured and coveted: a childhood spent tearing up VHS tapes of old Hollywood musicals, the move to New York to study at an actor's conservatory, time cutting her teeth playing the Bushwick show circuit in a power-pop band, singing backup vocals on tour with friends' bands, losing and rediscovering her footing in the rush of the slipstream.

Sunk Cost Fantasy is the culmination of years of writing and discovery. Known for her memorable live performances, Blums has built a following within the New York scene and played with a range of contemporaries like May Rio, Bella Litsa, Nyxy Nyx and more. This spring, she previewed new material during an intimate set in Brooklyn, NY for artist Rachel Lime's album release show at Union Pool and supporting Morning Silk at Night Club 101.

Working with co-producer Kirk Palsma after several false starts in recording her own written material, the record saw Feder dedicate the collage of herself to tape over several years while also playing and singing live with local scene stalwarts like fantasy of a broken heart, May Rio, and Shallowhalo. Backed up in the sessions mostly by musicians with jazz and classical backgrounds, she developed a firmer grasp on the sound Blums makes: chaotic and ephemeral, hook-forward but transient, a rose-tinged make-believe with sharp teeth, coming in hiccuping starts and stops.

Opener 'Intro' provides a fitting portal into the record's world, pitched up and fragmented, before sending listeners headfirst into the Disney movie swirl of 'Still,' floating on the power of its airy backing vocals and woozy strings over skittering percussion before the closing shove of drums knocks the dream off its axis. These moments of disruption become the record's driving emotional force, erupting the titular fantasy into something sacred and tangible, like where the warmth of 'Celsius' is punctured by sampled noises that sound like they're attempting to swallow the tale of distant love dying whole, or in the sputtering trip-hop interlude of 'Side of the Road,' or the moment where acoustic ballad 'Judy' bursts into a rhythm built on manipulated vocals.

'Cashout' builds to a fuzzy crescendo of vocalizations, written by Feder while walking manically around Maria Hernandez Park on the day of recording. 'Love unspent / It's gotta go somewhere,' she sings repeatedly over the fairytale swoon of the record's closing track, wishing for a place where she can prop those emotions up and stand by them, no running from the rupture.

Tracklist

1. Intro

2. Still

3. Sinking/Soaring

4. Salty

5. Celsius

6. Side of the Road

7. Cashout

8. Triple A (as a healer)

9. Judy

10. Further Away

11. Unspent

About Take Care Records

Take Care Records is an independent record label based in Brooklyn, NY, built from a passion for music. Guided by the simple but profound mantra, 'It's no good unless it's real,' the label focuses on fostering authentic artistic expressions that resonate on a personal level. Take Care maintains a close-knit connection with the city's indie music scene, championing singular artists with creative integrity.

Blums is scheduled to headline an album release show at Night Club 101 in New York City with support from May Rio.

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