Life often sucks. Sometimes you just want to get off the grid and think about what it all means. Sometimes you get off the grid and then get back on it and then have no idea what you've been doing. Sometimes that doesn't matter. Sometimes you just sit around on a warm afternoon in the South and let the breeze blow and know that everything is OK. Life is often chill. Especially when it's that perfect time of day where you're pretty sure the day is going to last forever, and there is also a dog there. That's what Deerhunter's new song "Living My Life" is about. It is chill. Sometimes it's a little grim. Bradford Cox sings "will you tell me when you find out how / to recover the lost years / I've spent all of my time / chasing the fading frontier." But it's not really sad. I mean, look at that dog! In the video! He's so happy!Cox directed the video, which he says is dedicated to Miles Davis. In a statement he explained it's aboutmacro meditations on geology and botany to observations of afternoon light filtered onto wooden floors. The idea was to have a formless visual that does not conform to the overwhelming cleverness and narrative ambition of most modern videos. Instead we have a sometimes pointless, sometimes ridiculous, and sometimes hypnotically beautiful mess of images and rhythm. The final section of the video, in particular, could be a teenage garage band take on Tarkovsky's Solaris. Various chemicals and dyes were used to create a liquid fantasia for the song's transcendent climax.The song follows Deerhunter's other singles "Snakeskin" and "Breaker" off their new album, appropriately titled Fading Frontier, which is out this Friday. Watch the video for "Living My Life" below:Follow Kyle Kramer on Twitter.
Advertisement