BLUMS ANNOUNCES DEBUT ALBUM | SHARES OPERATIC SUMMER TRACK “CASHOUT”
TAKE CARE RECORDS
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 7, 2026, 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.
Last month, 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. You could build universes out of the people she’s been, measure the dimensions of the fantasy waiting to be seized. You can’t quite hold a moonbeam in your hand, but once you’ve collated all of the people you’ve been before and the sounds they each made, maybe you could at least try to compress the moonbeam onto tape. 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. Last month, she previewed new material during an intimate set in Brooklyn, NY, for artist Rachel Lime’s album release show at Union Pool.
Artist Quote
“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.”
Blums
Sunk Cost Fantasy
(Take Care Records)
Release Date: August 7, 2026
Artist Links
Photo Credit: Eleanor Petry
SPILL NEW MUSIC: ORQUESTA AKOKÁN RELEASE “N ME VOY” AHEAD OF FULL-LENGTH ALBUM ‘AMÉRICA!’
SPILL NEW MUSIC: WESTISLONELY RETURNS WITH STRIKING SINGLE “BAD DOG” AHEAD OF HER NEWLY ANNOUNCED SUMMER EP MAN’S RUIN
SPILL NEW MUSIC: THOMAS DUXBURY AND NEW MOTHER NATURE – “NIGHT IS YOUNG”
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: GREAT FALLS – “BLUE BRICKS”
