Sneaker Pimps have released a new music video for their rousing new single “Fighter,” per Brooklyn Vegan. The video was directed by founding member of the band Chris Corner. The song is one of the first singles off of the trip-hop outfit’s recently announced upcoming album Squaring the Circle, the band’s first album in almost two decades. It is due out this fall.
“Fighter” features a gritty, yet tightly-produced trip-hop instrumental which sets the mood for Simonne Jones’ and Corner’s lyrics, which tell the story of a woman who feels “paralyzed and powerless.” “‘Fighter’ is an ode to the struggle to tune out, gain strength and breakthrough,” explains Corner. As the chorus kicks in, Jones lets us know that this woman has “always been a fighter,” and is determined to break out of this paralysis, “bending the bars of her own cage.” Jones’ voice particularly connects the listener to the song’s protagonist and adds weight to her story.
The video, which was shot near Corner’s studio in Pioneertown, CA, presents Janine from IAMX as a woman dressed in a light yellow gimp suit. For the first section of the video, the woman is alone in the middle of an empty, pink room, where she paints a circle around the platform she stands on. Midway through, the woman is equipped with a set of spiked boxing gloves and attacked by a flurry of bouncing balls, which appear to get the best of her. She takes a break, her trainor psyches her up, and comes out victorious against the balls and an onslaught of balloons.
Corner talked about the events and meaning of the video. “The character’s fight is ridiculous, there is no other,” he said. “In the grip of the darkest depression and anxiety the opponent is her own mind. She locks herself in her ring, painting a circle and shrinking her world even further. Freeze, flight, or fight. Self fulfilling prophecies. She’s wrapped in a gimp suit because she’s a slave to her own negative narratives. Trapped by vices and triggered by the most innocuous objects. In this world, bouncing balls and balloons become existential threats. But there’s also a faint light of hope. She’s dancing in the face of the full catastrophe of life. She will prevail, she always has. Round 2.”
Sneaker Pimps announced the upcoming album Squaring The Circle back in May. Earlier this month, the band also released the titular track from their upcoming album, their first in nearly 20 years.
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