Squirrel Flower Shares Cinematic New Single & Video “Cleveland”

Today, Squirrel Flower, the project of beloved Chicago-based artist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ella Williams, has shared “Cleveland,” which is the final single and video from her fourth studio album, Say Prayer to the Gods of Getting Going, that will be out this Friday through Polyvinyl Record Co. The song  is yearning without being precious by winking through playful lyrics, infectious hooks and guitar soloing by Dimitri Giannopoulos (Horse Jumper of Love).

Co-written with Ella’s sibling Nate Williams, a first for the typically solo songwriter, “Cleveland” toys with a classic love story in the context of the unmoored angst held by so many young people. The song sounds luminescent and effortless, as reflected in its cinematic, daydream-like video, shot on film and edited by Jackson James.”Cleveland’ is a song about choosing the city over the crush, about domesticity, about the strange magnetism of the city on Lake Erie, about the promise of the rust belt as a future site for climate migration. It’s a song I originally wrote with my family band, ‘uncommon rat.’ I asked my siblings if I could use the song on my album and they both said yes,” said Ella.

The artist briefly adds: The video concept came from my mom, she had the idea of me hitchhiking to Cleveland and then cutting to a dream scene of this saccharine American domestic fantasy, à la ‘Desperately Seeking Susan,’ which we saw together in theaters in February and have been obsessed with ever since.”