Parenthetical Girls sound like Colin Meloy if he grew up with the Elephant 6 collective. After 2008's ambitious orchestral opus Entanglements, the band is set to release their new album, Privilege, on their own Slender Means Society label, distributing the tracks in the form of five EPs to be released sequentially over the next fifteen months.

The first offering, Privilege Pt. I: On Deaths and Endearments, will be released in extremely limited 12" on February 23. Leading up to that day, videos for all tracks will be made available. The lead single, "Evelyn McHale," acts as a Parenthetical Girls manifesto.

Evelyn McHale, who jumped to her death from the observation deck of the Empire State Building in 1947, is the starting point for a more personal statement on the nature of the band. "Grab those drones by the stones," sings Zac Pennington, "and we'll be stars the way that we are." The song is about art and making it on one's own terms; it is about stardom without compromise. The video -- more like a low-budget short-film -- begins with a rooster call and introduces a loose narrative by juxtaposing the fashionable band members with forests and farm animals. Similar to the aesthetic of the band, the video capitalizes on making beauty from the base, the natural, and the strange.

The rest of Privilege Pt. I hovers between orchestral rock and dream pop, tied together by Pennington's coherent lyrics and ear for melodic hooks. The arrangements throughout the EP are ambitious yet accessible, and the only drawback to the record is its short length, clocking in at just over twenty minutes.

Exciting and experimental in every way, from conceptual content to distribution, Parenthetical Girls have begun crafting a musical reality all their own with Privilege Pt. I. One can only speculate as to the many directions the rest of the series might take. - Adam Kritzer

Mr. Kritzer travels the globe -- or at least NYC --- looking for revelatory moments of musical bliss.