Wendy Eisenberg has shared Vanity Paradox, the third and final single from their forthcoming self-titled album, out April 3rd via Joyful Noise. The track arrives with a music video directed by Ruby Mars, filmed in and around Lucy the Elephant, the 65-foot landmark on the Atlantic City beachfront.
The song lands on the heels of Eisenberg’s cover feature in the new issue of The Wire, in which writer Stewart Smith explores how the guitarist, banjo player, composer and improviser’s many projects bridge technical metal shredding, free jazz and country hybrids. Vanity Paradox lives up to that breadth of ambition: built on Eisenberg’s lyrical and musical restlessness, it traces the vertiginous loop of self-examination in artmaking — the way looking too closely at yourself can leave you unable to see anything at all.
Eisenberg says of the track: “These lyrics came out in one wild, puzzling chunk I’m still deciphering. Mari [Rubio] told me it sounds like how anxiety feels, which shocked me — but is ultimately just true. From what I can tell, it’s about the ways we cope with existing among others, and how it feels to want to be perceived as a good person by your friends, because your curiosity about yourself has, paradoxically, obscured you to yourself. It’s also about healing from trauma — specifically how the healing process brings you so close to yourself that you can’t see anything clearly, and you are so dazzled by the life surrounding you that you are stunned when you remember that you are the same person who experienced the trauma that got you here.”
Ruby Mars, who directed the video, explains: “We filmed this video around and within a legendary Atlantic City landmark known as Lucy the Elephant, a 65-foot tall elephant-shaped beachfront house. Valorous Lucy, who has stood longer than the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty, has weathered several hurricanes and natural disasters, and looms behind Wendy with an almost threatening peculiarity.”
Eisenberg’s lyricism here is striking in its tensile honesty — images of sand comprised of limitless shells and water eating away at the shore give physical weight to processes of erosion and endurance.
Wendy Eisenberg was recorded with longtime collaborators, including bassist Trevor Dunn, drummer Ryan Sawyer, and co-producer Mari Rubio, who handled pedal steel, synth and string arrangements. Eisenberg will be touring steadily throughout the year, with shows alongside Richard Dawson and a co-headlining album release run with more eaze.
Wendy Eisenberg is out April 3rd via Joyful Noise Recordings.
Pre-Order/Save: https://wendyeisenberg.lnk.to/wendy