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Music

Son Lux Premiere Their Desolating Video for "The Fool You Need"

The New York-based trio’s new music video proves just how closely life, love, and death are intertwined.
Meredith Balkus
translated by Meredith Balkus
Brooklyn, US

Sweat, filth, tears, and a desperate battle for romantic survival—all of it bubbles to the surface in Son Lux’s new music video “The Fool You Need,” which premieres exclusively on Noisey today. Director Jean-Paul Frenay, who previously worked with the band on their 2016 single “Cage of Bones,” says he felt an immediate connection to the song. When Son Lux decided to let him direct it, he visually interpreted the track to mirror the endless circle of life, love, and death that it so tragically captures.

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In the video, a man and woman fight desperately to escape of a womb-like cocoon. They scream and claw at the walls, exhausted and sweat-drenched. When they finally get out, an invisible force flings them apart in opposite directions. They fight through a vicious tunnel of dirt, fire, and water, crawling towards the other one on all fours. As frontman Ryan Lott repeats the lyrics, “Hollow me,” the woman’s hands finally connect with the man’s. They cling to one another, reunited as Lott breathily sings, “I am not letting go / No matter what you do”. But the storm wins out in the end, and the two float lifelessly, suspended in mid-air at the middle of the hallway.

“The Fool You Need” offers a lesson to be learned: Relationships are complex. No matter how hard you fight to get together and then stay together, you may very well fail in the end.

The ruthless cycle of life, love, and death isn’t just something Frenay instilled while directing the video for “The Fool You Need.” It’s the unifying thread that winds through the entirety of Son Lux’s new album Brighter Wounds, which was released on February 9, 2018. As the band was working on the record, Lott’s son was born and his best friend died of cancer. The contrast between these two events is evident in the lyrics and complemented by the band’s dramatic, harmonic sound, which falls somewhere between electronic post-rock, avant-garde jazz, and synth-pop. If nothing else, Son Lux creates music that survives—even if life and love alike are extinguished.

This article originally appeared on Noisey Germany.