Pema, the experimental pop project of Alex Napping frontwoman Alex Cohen, will return with its second album Bad Habits, due out May 18 on Topshelf Records. Bad Habits is a record with a specific mission — to represent the sense of shame that society burdens on women and the journey that Cohen undertook to resolve her own perceived character flaws. Each track on the album examines a particular source of shame.”

Pema shared the album’s first single “Depend” today. The video shows her eating a raw onion. Says Cohen, “This sort of self-inflicted misery, I thought, paired nicely with the themes of ‘Depend’ — a song about harmful, yet voluntary emotional dependency. It has been my experience as a woman, and I think many others, that I have been conditioned my entire life to believe that I needed the adoration and strength of men to be fulfilled, even when it’s a source of pain and making me absolutely miser-able.”

Pema
Bad Habits
May 18, 2018 –
Topshelf Records

1. Depend
2. Tempt
3. Obsess
4. Purge
5. Cry
6. Avoid
7. Bicker
8. Clench
9. Hustle
10. Run