Alex McArtor Releases Invigorating 'Bras and Jeans'

Today, Texas singer/songwriter Alex McArtor shares the ethereal video for her new single, "Bras and Jeans." The video was directed by Erica Silverman of Magic Seed (The Strokes, Kesha), and premiered at For The Rabbits who said, "stunning... A flurry of electric guitar riffs collide with the steady clatter of the drumbeat and rapid-fire vocals, coming across like the middle-ground of Hatchie and Arcade Fire." The track comes from her forthcoming EP, Welcome to the Wasteland due June 25.

Glorious and shimmering yet undeniably melancholy, "Bras and Jeans" mines a particularly fraught memory from McArtor's recent past, delivering a bit of piercing commentary on the media's obsession with oversexualizing young women. In discussing the lyrics she shared, "It's based on a time when my friends and I were swimming in a lake and all these horny freshman boys were watching us. 'Bras and Jeans' is about society's infatuation with exploiting girls as they transition into womanhood before they are even aware of their sexuality - which is imposed on us before we're ready. A women's sexuality and power belong to her; it's not something there for the taking by the voyeurs of the world."

"Bras and Jeans" is the third single from the upcoming EP following the all-embracing anthem of inclusivity, "Baby Don't Cut Your Hair For Anyone" and gorgeously sprawling pseudo-title track, "Wasteland."

Welcome to the Wasteland unfolds like a surreal and spellbinding movie in music form. With her hypnotic voice and lavishly detailed lyrics, the 18-year-old artist follows her sharply drawn characters as they wander and stumble through a series of strange and desolate settings: empty highways, strip-mall parking lots, the wild expanse beneath a blood orange moon. When matched with the EP's shapeshifting sound, the result is an enthralling portrait of isolation and longing and self-salvation, at turns heartbreaking and fantastically joyful.

Naming David Lynch as a key influence on her intricate storytelling, McArtor wrote much of Welcome to the Wasteland on a trip to her family's lakeside farm in East Texas, where she was accompanied by fellow songwriter Henry Brill (Maddie Medley, Phantogram, Jack Garratt) and producer/songwriter Owen Lewis (Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Lady Gaga). "We'd write in the living room and then go hang down by the lake, come back up and flip some pancakes, then do it all over again," McArtor recalls. "It's a small town and really beautiful but also kind of creepy at night, and I think being out in the middle of nowhere like that really helped to create the world I was trying to build with the EP."

Watch the video here:

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