Well This New Alt-J Video for “Pusher” Is Pretty Damn Dark

The vista is ever-so British: bleak, grey, foreboding council estates looming (that’s what the English call “the projects”), skeletal trees that may never bloom green again. In the middle of what appears to be a burned out, post-apocalyptic soccer field (plus a random telephone box), stands a bunch of men in suits, looking like blank banker automatons. One holds center-stage and proceeds to have a cataclysmic meltdown—the likes of which I haven’t seen since the devil took over Reagan’s body in The Exorcist. This is not going to end well.

Musically it’s Alt-J at their most elegantly acoustic and sparse with a chorus that flays singer Joe Newman bare.

“Are you a pusher or are you a puller? / I pull the weight towards me / And I lack the zest of a lemon, looking forward / Unless I have a woman pushing me,” he quavers. Ideally you want a pusher and a puller, don’t you? I certainly don’t want to spend all my time pushing—that shit’s tiring—but this is sweetly soothing.

Alt-J Tour Dates

3/12-15 – Bogota, CO – Festival Estereo Picnic

3/14-15 – Santiago, CL – Lollapalooza Chile

3/21-22 – Buenos Aires, AR – Lollapalooza Argentina

3/28-29 – Sao Paulo, SP – Lollapalooza Brazil

3/30 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden

4/01 – Cleveland, OH – State Theater at Playhouse Square – SOLD OUT

4/02 – Pittsburgh, PA – Benedum Center – SOLD OUT

4/03 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheatre – SOLD OUT

4/04 – Atlanta, GA – Chastain Park Amphitheatre – SOLD OUT

4/06 – Nashville, TN – Grand Ole Opry – SOLD OUT

4/08 – Oklahoma City, OK – Chevy Bricktown Events Center – SOLD OUT

4/11 – Indio, CA – Coachella Music Festival

4/13 – Las Vegas, NV – The Joint

4/14 – Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl

4/16 – Berkeley, CA – Greek Theatre – SOLD OUT

4/17 – Berkeley, CA – Greek Theatre

4/18 – Indio, CA – Coachella Music Festival

7/24-26 – Oro-Medonte, ON – WayHome Music & Arts Festival

7/25 – Kansas City, KS – Sporting Park

7/27 – Morrison, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre

7/28 – Council Bluffs, IA – Stir Concert Cove at Harrah’s Council Bluffs