Music Video: Tigertown – Lonely Cities
Fuelled on the success of their Aussie tour last month along with a string of sellout US shows, Tigertown are back with a new music video in celebration of their hugely successful track, Lonely Cities, which has been flooding our airwaves most recently.
Directed by Kenny Laubbacher, the video’s brightly coloured palate portrays scenes of a couple’s separation due to distance. The video starts of with a close-up of two faces starring directly into the camera lens which makes you feel a little uncomfortable watching, as if you’re somehow playing witness to the loneliness that occupies what once was.
Featuring a white background set against an almost clinical use of primary colours, reds, yellows, and blues, a synchronicity of colours is established in the mind of the viewer providing them with the hope that despite the physical distance between the couple a connection is still present.
Laubbacher’s use of three distinct frames placed beside each other, girl on the left and guy on the right, is balanced with the introduction of Tigertown sandwiched between the two lovers acting as if the connection between two worlds as they drift further apart.
Lonely Cities presents us with contrasting tones of joy and sadness, good and bad. Just like the stripes of the Tigertown’s feline namesake, it could be understood that the outcome of long distance relationships are wild and unpredictable.
There is a sense of playfulness to the track that I enjoy simply because of its dreamy pop laden track despite its sombre message. Thrust towards the rhythms of life I am reminded of the joys of dancing to ‘the sound of the lonely heartbeats’ pulsating through.
Originating from Sydney, the four piece band’s style is synth pop with the track containing a catchy toe taping tune which compels you to perform gawky solo dancing in one’s bedroom at 10pm on a weeknight (or maybe that’s just me).
With over 4 million plays on Spotify and quickly becoming a hot favourite of Triple J after premiering on Goodnights with Linda, Lonely Cities is a track which as been dubbed, ‘a kind of anthem for distance relationships.’
Produced by Tommy English of BØRNS, Ladyhawke, and Robert DeLonge fame, is the Lonely Cities EP which is the result of countless hours of writing and recording both in studio and on tour.
Observing the growing distance between two of their friends undergoing the ordeals of a long distance relationship, Tigertown paint a harsh reality in which uncertainty clouds so many of us as we struggle to keep connected.
There’s a loneliness that towers over as if a skyscraper overshadowing the city below, hollowing out cityscapes created by shaped spaces of emptiness, a longing formed over time. Lonely Cities addresses this feeling of emptiness that seems to resonate in so many of us. It seems strange for such an upbeat pop track to cover themes of such a sombre nature but the reality is that this is how we cope.
In amongst the cityscapes is an architectural map of maybes filling us with thoughts regarding the age old question of whether absence does make the heart grow fonder. Although a loneliness lingers in the darkness, Tigertown’s track comforts letting us know that in amongst the dark, lonely cities there is and will always be hope.
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Words by Addy Fong.
