Artist: Bailen
Album: Tired Hearts
Alternative/indie band, Bailen, has released their new album Tired Hearts. The album is available for streaming anywhere you get your music.
Bailen consists of fraternal twins Daniel and David Bailen, as well as their younger sister Julia Bailen. The band has recently started an initiative called Family Therapy, offering their fans advice on family or friend challenges.
Of the album, the band says, “Intertwined in Tired Hearts is the frustration and elation that comes with trying to close the gap between expectation and reality. Through these songs we learn how to dream in the face of uncertainty, anxiety, and depression. We are stubbornly resilient – gracelessly marching onward; hopeful but with Tired Hearts.”
Tired Hearts consists of twelve tracks: Tired Hearts; Nothing Left To Give; These Bones; Leave Me Wanting More; Here We Are Again; Call It Like It Is; Change Your Mind; Love You Blind; Relic; BRCA (Nothing Takes Me Down); Shadows; and Hiding. Several of the songs have lyric videos or visualizers available on the band’s YouTube, and the track “Call It Like It Is” has an official music video.
Discussing the track “Here We Are Again”, Julia stated: “The song is about running out of things to say to your significant other. I had brought the track home to David and Daniel and we tried to work out a more personal approach to the song. Daniel, in a stroke of inspiration just started writing all of these lines from my perspective – moments of my life and relationship that we had all lived through together or heard about—and the verses just poured out of him.”
Bailen reminds me of bands like Vampire Weekend, Sonic Youth, and The Smiths. In some of their songs, I even hear a little bit of The Beatles. Julia has an absolutely beautiful, dreamy voice that reminds me of Kate Bush. If you can imagine yourself sitting in a trendy café (tucked away in a recently gentrified neighborhood, of course), sipping a very expensive ethically-sourced cappuccino—Tired Hearts would be the music playing quietly in the background. At first glance, Tired Hearts is a relaxing, mellow, almost-groovy listen.
However, it doesn’t stop there. It’s clear that Bailen has poured their hearts into this album, creating a raw, vulnerable, sometimes heart-wrenching experience for the listener. In “Nothing Left To Give”, a song about burn-out, the band sings: “I got nothing left to give, but that’s ok/It’s just a little less to lose when you’re losing your way/Running on empty/Just to make it through the day/And I only have myself to save/Baby I could be brave enough to say/I only have myself to save”.
Meanwhile, in “Call It Like It Is”, the band writes about a romantic partner who isn’t being truthful: “Heavy-handed, demanding to meet your bottom line/If all I ever am is a copy, then what is left to mine?” The corresponding music video is extremely well produced and funny—featuring the band accepting a gracious offer to stay in a “fan’s” home during their tour, only to find themselves kidnapped and forced to try to escape. The video ties in so well with the theme of the song, especially the lyric “Call it what it is/You’ve got some bodies in your basement”.
Overall, I really enjoyed Tired Hearts. You can check out Bailen on Instagram and TikTok.