Synth-rock act White Lies has released the video for their new single “Take it Out on Me”. The single will be a part of their upcoming newly announced album Friends. The music video can be viewed below:
Directed by David Pablos, the video is chilling, polished, and dark. The constant religious imagery seems to suggest that the main characters in the video (the red-haired girl, the guy with the gun, and the priest) are in a sense finding their own salvation. The young man with the gun finds his peace by renouncing violence and throwing his gun on the ground. This action gets him killed by his partner, which soaks him in blood. However, he seems to come back from the dead, seemingly at peace, because he redeems himself. The red-haired girl has a variety of dates throughout the video, but is guilty and always runs away from them. She finally achieves her inner peace, which depending on your interpretation may be oppressive or not, by becoming a nun. She completely changes herself physically and symbolically by painting herself blue, which also changes the color of her house. The priest, who in the video described how he was saved by God, is tortured by his homosexual desires. As a result, he severs his penis. Both the priest and the girl were “plagued” by natural, carnal desires, which could be seen as a critique of religion suppressing sexuality.
Fans of the band have been clamoring for something to be sure that the band still exists, having not gotten anything since 2013’s “First Time Caller“. The track itself is the first released single off of the bands upcoming album Friends. After a long hiatus, fans should be glad to know that the band is retaining all of its dark, post-punk, synth-rock glory. Harry McVeigh’s vocals are as charming as they are dark, displaying the music’s sinister implications under a coat of sheen. The track is very cleanly produced, and the gloss especially shows in the crystalline synths. All in all, it’s a very impressive track, and if the rest of Friends can follow up, it will be a worthy notch on White Lies’ discography.
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