Jen Awad Reveals the Rapturous Title-Track of New Album "Existential Daydream"

Los Angeles-based artist Jen Awad obliterates fears of failure on her new single “Existential Daydream,” arriving as both the title track and first preview of her forthcoming debut album. She will also be playing at The Moroccan Lounge in Los Angeles on August 27th. Wielding a meteoric voice that’s rightfully earned her comparisons to Amy Winehouse and Tina Turner, she channels all that igneous emotion into resplendent anthems indebted to the sounds of the ’70s and ’80s.

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Written over the course of a decade “Existential Daydream” traverses all the horrendous lows and ecstatic highs that Awad has faced since embarking on her journey as an artist. One that saturates all her anxieties and hopes in its rhapsodic melodies until she emerges radiantly triumphant. The first half of the song — “Maybe I was never making it / Maybe I was only faking it / Maybe dreams don’t have the answer” she murmurs at its open — was penned at a dark time in her life.

But the song then makes an immense shift, due in part to Awad’s decision to set it aside and revisit it over the years. The result is a song that functions as a hopeful message to her younger self — one held aloft by its blistering and invigorating glam rock force. Echoing the rapture of bands like ELO, Supertramp, and Queen with its piano flourishes and grilling riffs.

“Existential Daydream” comes with an equally stunning music video directed by Jordan Thomas. One that envisions Awad as a woman who gambles her heart away — and wins — but is then doomed to be chased through increasingly unnerving alternate dimensions. Drawing inspiration from the character of Ginger Rothstein from the 1995 film “Casino,” the video is an alluring piece of work that gets ever weirder and enthralling as you watch it. Awad’s character passes through everything from a fairy-like fantasy world to a gory dinner party before finally realizing she needs to stop running.