Throwing Muses Take Us Through Twists and Turns on New Song “Dark Blue”

Throwing Muses have released the music video for their song “Dark Blue,” premiering the video on Louder Than War. Directed, cut and pasted by John-Mark Lapham, the music video comes ahead of their upcoming album Sun Racket, planned for a September 4 release.

The animated video dances in hues of blue, white lines vibrating with the guitar strums, comic book imagery of the band members being torn with palm trees while eyeballs bounce across the screen. A few of the song’s lyrics appear while the animation reflects pieces of paper in a collage, moving across each other in varying layers. Lapham cut and pasted much of the imagery for the video himself, animating what he created afterwards so they would appear to flow through the screen.

“Dark Blue” begins with rough chords, delving into a slinking strum as Kristin Hersh’s ragged voice lures listener’s in. Electric strums slowly speed up through the track, nearly unnoticeable until the bouncing of more acoustic strums peak through. The drums hit harder while Hersh’s continues to weave through the instrumentals.

Squiggling lines reflect much of the instrumental strums, blinking into eyes and turning into the words “Dark Blue” to match Hersh’s lyrics. Swatches of browns and grays occasionally appear on screen before returning to the varying shades of blue to match the song’s title.

Hersh described the song to Louder Than War, saying she wanted the visuals and instrumentals to have a layer of feedback, with the video and its influence being “sorta grim, kinda pretty.” Hersh feels the imagery is reflective of black holes, creating a deep feeling.

“If I were under you/I’d be underwater/And lighting matches underwater/I’d find you,” Hersh sings, as if the words were spiraling around the black hole. She speeds up with the lyric, “Coming down,” the song entering outer-space as she rolls around the words “suspended animation.”

Sun Racket will be the band’s first album in seven years, and originally planned for release in May. Last summer saw Throwing Muses playing some of their first live shows in five years. Originally intending to tour this summer in support of Sun Racket, the band was forced to postpone due to COVID-19. Prior to the upcoming album, Throwing Muses’ last release had been 2013’s Purgatory/Paradise.

Photo credit: Raymond Flotat