Last year, North Carolina electronic-pop duo Sylvan Esso dropped a single called “Radio,” and it was perhaps the most damning and catchiest call-out of our batshit crazy (and likely unsustainable) digital music media culture.
“Do you got the moves to make it stick, yeah, to get the clicks, yeah,” sings Amelia Meath on the top-shelf tune before dropping: “Technicolor our every move/Can you keep them coming like a machine, yeah/The old Blue Jean, yeah/What can we do to get you on the news?”
Well, one is to write songs like this.
This week, “Radio” gets the proper video treatment from director Elise Tyler, and it’s enough to get us clicking up a storm anticipating Sylvan Esso’s upcoming appearance during Boston Calling Music Festival Friday slate (May 26) alongside Chance The Rapper, Bon Iver, Sigur Ros, Solange, Car Seat Headrest, Mac Demarco, Vundabar, and others.
Here’s what Tyler has to say about the clip: “‘Radio’ deals with the game dynamics of pop culture, media, and the players who participate in it. Often times, it can be hard to distinguish where the actual power is held — who is the pusher, who is the user, and who is being used — and, maybe, that those roles aren’t mutually exclusive. The women in our video are masters of this riddle, acting as devout consumers and also powerfully seductive influencers — a balance that all women know too well.”
Sylvan Esso’s new album What Now is out on April 28 via Loma Vista Recordings. Pre-order it here, and peep the full Boston Calling lineup after the video jump.
