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Beirut’s “Perth” Video Will Make You Dance Away Those Seasonal Blues (Premiere)

Beirut has always had a knack for turning dreariness into shine.

Throughout the Santa Fe band’s 10-year career, they have created several masterful, symphonic records using a wide array of instruments to make a simultaneously forlorn and triumphant sound. Though lead singer Zach Condon’s distinct voice hangs low like a willow tree, the outfit has always managed to find a way to elevate him upwards from under his own shadow.

This was especially true of the group’s 2015 record No No No, which was succinctly pretty. By far, my favorite track off that record is “Perth,” which is why I am very excited that Nerdist is exclusively premiering the music video for that track above. Very much in the theme of light-dark dyads, the music video, directed by Clara Aranovich, features the same actor dancing simultaneously in two different climates with a cool symmetrical split screen. Perhaps the most perfect Beirut music video that ever was, it is at once lighthearted, bucolic, severe, and tragic. Hint: Make sure you watch through to the end.

We got in touch with Aranovich, who said she has long been a Beirut fan—long enough that her first video in film school was set to a Beirut song. She also gave us a bit of background for the music video: “Nature is a somewhat like a church to me—a place of reverence that is deeply democratic in that it belongs to both everyone and no one. These places are as beautiful as they are a neutral canvas, as real as they are surreal.”

Whether you are sick of permanent sunshine or relentless snow storms, we have a feeling this video will help.

Featured Image by Drew Reynolds

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