BAILEN is back with Tired Hearts, a taut, synth-driven album, showcasing radiant harmonies and adventurous arrangements. At times both intricate and playful, measured and elaborate, the album’s 12 original songs wrestle with an uncertain future where ethics and morality—both communal and personal—are constantly shifting. Tired Hearts beats with empathy, vulnerability, and resolve, navigating the space between the heart’s expectation and the head’s sober reality.
Produced by Brad Cook (Bon Iver, Waxahatchee) and BAILEN, and mixed by Lars Stalfors (Soccer Mommy, St. Vincent, Local Natives) Tired Hearts’ highlights include the recently released sparkling new wave/indie pop banger “Call It Like It Is,” written by the band and X Ambassadors’ Adam Levin and Sam Harris. The track’s hilarious video, directed and edited by the band’s David Bailen – is a fictionalized account of a scary real-life catfishing episode they recently experienced while on tour, watch: HERE. Previously the band also shared the piercing, unforgettable title track, “Tired Hearts,” listen HERE.
The album also includes the tender, hushed intimacy of “These Bones,” and the moving “BRCA (Nothing Takes Me Down),” a title derived from the breast cancer gene Julia shares with her mother (a breast cancer survivor). Over a slow building rhythmic pulse, Julia sings of hospital gowns and uncertainty, untying a complex knot of familial anxiety, guilt, and acceptance, while embracing the determination to move forward: I’ll still live like I’m dying/But I won’t let it take me down. “It’s about finding ways to not be defined by these circumstances, and to move past them with resilience,” she affirms.
Known for their stunning vocals and sharp, literate songwriting, BAILEN have cultivated a passionate following and emerged in indie circles via word of mouth, robust playlisting (with well over 25 millions streams to date!) and steady touring with artists such as Hozier, Amos Lee, The Lone Bellow, and Joseph, to name a few.