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The Solar Eclipse Won't Do Anything as Weird as Faith Healer's "Try" Video

The latest single from Jessica Jalbert and Renny Wilson's forthcoming LP is sweet and melodic and joined by one of the strangest videos we've ever seen.

Faith Healer's second LP, Try ;-), is one of the best-written pop albums of 2017, wandering between sounds and styles without ever sounding contrived or losing coherence. Jessica Jalbert—who started using the Faith Healer name on 2015's underrated pop-rock gem Cosmic Troubles—now shares the project with drummer and multi-instumentalist Renny Wilson, and the record widens sonically as a result. But the David Lynch synths on "Sterling Silver" and box blues piano on "2nd Time" aren't afterthoughts or superficial additions. Jalbert and Wilson have pointed to Wipers, Leonard Cohen, and Elvis Costello up as touchstones during the songwriting process, and they mean it. Jalbert's soft, breathy delivery continues unmoved while she and Wilson smudge the space between new wave, pub rock, and Pacific Northwest punk.

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"Try," premiering on Noisey today, is one of the record's most gentle and melodic tracks, with Jalbert's voice at the front of the mix, backed by some high synths and an elastic bassline. In an email to Noisey, Jalbert wrote about the song's Springsteen influence and its fatalistic lyrics:

This song was one I wrote after our first set of sessions last year. We had already tracked a lot of the main material for the album but we were still short a couple songs so this one was kind of my homework to demo before we got back into the studio. Years and years ago a coworker showed me that Bruce Springsteen song, "Tougher Than the Rest," and I've been crazy about it ever since, so I wanted to try and write something like that. Not sure it turned out that way but I really like it. I remember this song being specifically fun to record, actually. I think we were both pretty high energy when we first dug into it and were weirdly giddy about it. The lyrics are just about how hard it can be to let go of that feeling that you're separated from everyone else and alone. But also how good it can be if you do manage to let go for a bit.

The batshit insane and extremely fun video for "Try," which you can watch at the top of the page, was directed by Jordan "Dr. Cool" Minkoff. It makes almost no sense at all. That was, he told Noisey, intentional.

The original idea for the video was to create a sorta fast-forwarded, condensed version of a very poorly made film. I was hoping people would see it and feel relieved they didn't have to watch a feature length version. I was even looking forward to receiving emails thanking me for not making it any longer. The story is about a wacko couple that keeps re-uniting over the years, from their goth teen years to when they are old and "grey." There are also some other story lines in there to make it extra confusing. I thought we succeeded and I thought it was going to be real bad, but when we watched the final version I realized this could have been an amazing movie so to me this music video is a failure… it should be 5 hours long, not 5 minutes.

This is the madness that a total solar eclipse can generate. Watch it at the top of the page.

Follow Alex Robert Ross on Twitter.