Of all the videos that are a day in the life this may be my favorite. I love the fact that the video was shot by Lolo and a friend and then produced by somebody in what looks like their apartment. It looks like it was shot in one night, maybe two and we are just hanging out with her wherever this is. Hanging out at a food joint, riding on the subway. We've got great shots of her lip syncing to the camera. But what makes it all work is the song that the video goes with. It fits the song perfectly. I cannot imagine a better video for this song than what she created. So let's take a look at this song. By the way you can read the review of this album here, http://www.heathpost.com/2020/01/album-reviews-lolo-zouai-and-camila.html.
First let's look at the lyrics to the song. We get this opening verse.
I can't say I've been doing okay, I've been doing okay
(Ouais ouais ok)
And I can't wait to really get paid not just minimum wage, yeah
(Ouais ouais je sais)
Fake gold on my hoops, real rips in my pants
They think it's all Gucci, but it's 99 cents
I swear, yeah, yeah, I swear
In the video she's mostly going around town in a pullover shirt and jeans and looks like any other young person who maybe just got off work and is heading home or hanging out with friends. Nothing fancy very down to earth. We get these occasional shots of her dressed up, looking like she's going out with friends to go clubbing but because of the way this is shot, there is nothing glamorous about it. Again it feels very real and earthy and in Lolo we see someone who is this down to earth person who has dreams of being more. But we can still see the down to earth person.
Now in the pre-chorus we get into the heart of the song.
Ooh, you wanna help me
Ooh, you wanna fly me out to LA
Dreams you wanna sell me
I took a bite, that's a gold plate, a gold plate
OK so in this pre-chorus we get the idea that she's been offered a chance to make a record or sign a deal or something and was flown to LA to find out it was all fake. So she's real, but this world is fake.
So why does she go from highs to lows let's look at verse 2.
Real diamonds, I want 'em, but I can't find them
Timing, he said it's just bad timing
Lying, all I got from you was silence (Ouais ouais ok)
No gold on my neck
No 0's on my check
I swear, I swear (I swear)
So the real high was getting this offer to come to LA. She has real dreams, she wants success, but when that turned out to be fake she felt real lows. So from real highs to real lows.
Knowing this the video has so much more depth. She wants to be famous. She wants to be a star. She wants diamonds and real gold and success. Match these expressions with how the video is shot. She just looks like anybody. Someone just getting through the day, hanging out with friends, riding the subway, but she has dreams. We see the flashes of her dressed for clubbing and we can see the vulnerability that dreams like that can bring on a person.
Just a brilliant video for a brilliant song, that I have learned to like more and more over these past 4 years.
So I clicked the YouTube pane to start this song playing on a tab behind what I'm working on. Then, turned off by the spacy sound and the desperation in the few lines that I paid attention to, I flipped back to the tab to go to the next song link in your pileup of album reviews.
ReplyDeleteBut then I realized this was not one of those posts but was instead one of the great-video posts, and I actually read the post and watched the video. It's a terrifying and terrific piece of art.
I've known so many of these vulnerable kids. I vividly remember skipping a WKU class and playing ping-pong with one on the top of Pearce Ford Tower. He was a Grayson County kid who was getting ready to drop out of school and move to Los Angeles for a modeling job.
I'm unlikely to go back to this song/video for pretty much the same reasons I don't often seek to listen this song.
I agree--it's terrific.