Today, New York City’s Blums, the project of songwriter and musician Kelsea Feder, is excited to announce her debut album, Sunk Cost Fantasy, arriving August 8 via Take Care Records. On lead single ‘Cashout,’ pulsating synths and a driving kick drum punctuate 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, but being forced to remember the past.

The official music video is a reflection of these emotions and features Kelsea in her power, brandishing a knife on a New Jersey road as she’s confronted with reality. Directed by Ella Sinskey and Colter Fellows (Lip Critic, Isabella Lovestory, etc.), the concept for the video grew from Kelsea’s desire for a “fever dream Coyote Ugly bar dance sequence,” which was choreographed by Matilda Sakomoto.

Speaking about the new song and video, Kelsea shares, “Initially, I wrote this all on guitar and a GarageBand drum beat in 2022 or 2023, none of which made it into the final version. I came home from a night with a guy during which I had a pretty unpleasant memory pop up and wig me out during what was supposed to be a fun time.  It unlocked a lot of unpleasant memories/anger during what was supposed to be a sexy, fun time, and I wanted to turn it into a celebration of catharsis.  This song also points a lot to repeated patterns and how we find ourselves back inside of what we’re trying to get away from.  I walked manically around Maria Hernandez Park for a couple of hours when we were close to being done and wrote layers of vocal parts that all go over each other at the end of the song. I had the video idea for ‘Cashout’ over 2 years before I was finally able to make it.  I knew that I wanted some fever dream Coyote Ugly bar dance sequence interspersed with knife flipping on the side of the road where I grew up in South Jersey.  The song deals with uncomfortable memories and feeling stuck/frozen, so I wanted to turn the video into a fantasy/celebration of the anger to express what couldn’t be in a previously frozen state.

Sunk Cost Fantasy:

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