(Photo credit: Raymond Flotat)
Electropop-rock band Passion Pit released a new video for their song, “Lifted Up (1985).” The song appears on their highly anticipated upcoming album, Kindred, which will be released on April 21st, 2015.
The video for “Lifted Up (1985)” comes on the heels of the band’s successful series of shows at South By Southwest (SXSW), where they played as part of a livestreaming webcast and appeared onstage during the unusually quiet first day of the festivities.
This latest music video brings together a concept created by Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos, which was brought to life by director Phil Andelman.
“Lifted Up (1985)” opens with an out of focus shot from the ceiling of a darkened club, looking down on people moshing on the strobe-lit dance floor. The shots gradually move closer to the crowd, and change direction until it is as though the viewer is right on that dance floor, too.
It is out of this crowd and darkness that Passion Pit’s Angelakos emerges singing the opening lyrics of “Lifted Up (1985).” He is dressed in a dark dress shirt and suit jacket as he struggles to make his way through the crowd, dodging some people’s flailing limbs, and engaging in uncomfortable impromptu dances with others as a means of squeezing past them as he pushes forward toward the camera.
Then, as the electronic beat kicks in in the chorus that praises 1985 as being a “good year,” Angelakos is engulfed in a bright blue-white strobe light sequence, which is shot with a series of quick cuts between his face and those people on the dance floor. The quick camera work and strobe light sequence even out again, and come to rest on a study in contrasts: a stationary blue-light bathed Angelakos, who is backed by a lot of people who are waving glow sticks high in the air as they dance.
In one last scene change, viewers find Angelakos dancing in a crowd of people who are swaying and dancing largely in one place. As the electronic chorus comes through one last time, everyone – Angelakos included – begins to dance and sing along to the oh-so-catchy “Lifted Up (1985).”
Check it out:
Kindred is available for pre-order, now. And, the iTunes pre-order comes with an instant download of “Lifted Up (1985),” along with another track, “Where The Sky Hangs,” which you can listen to via Passion Pit’s official website.
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