John Cale has released new single/video “Shark-Shark” from his new album, POPtical Illusion. Following from his previous single “How We See The Light”, “Shark-Shark” is mutant-disco dance jam that see Cale utilizing various vocal tones, all set to a throbbing industrial beat made rich with punchy drum machines, before ending with a uneven guitar solo. This track is directly inspired from no-wave post-punk sound of ‘80s, a sound that Cale helped create.
For the video, Cale enlisted the help of longtime collaborator Abigail Portner to craft his insight to the song. The video has Cale walk in to a gallery piece where all the models are dressed as swans, encircling the other sculptures. The video takes on a more humorous tone compared to other entries as the models dance absurdly while doing ridiculous poses and actions. Cale joins in on the wackiness as everyone dances and partakes in the chaos of the scene. The video ends with Cale and the other models destroying the gallery piece and shedding off their costumes before freeze framing into a statuesque pose in the closing shot.
Describing more on the video, Portner states “when I first heard this song that first ting that stuck me was this vibe of gentle chaos, a chaos that’s not dangerous but playfulness that happens at a sleepover party or in a ‘80s comedy. I was in Oslo last summer with John and I had taken a bunch of pictures of the band in the National Museum standing in the hall of busts, looking very stark and cold. This idea popped into my head of what id the chaos in this song was sculptures coming to life and breaking all the rules! The concept of taking something like the National Museum or Swan Lake and having the art itself turn upside down seemed fitting for this song.”
POPtical Illusion, the eighteenth album of John Cale, releases on June 14, via Domino Records.
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