Though we are rapidly and willfully approaching singularity, the world is still a cold unforgiving place for robot-human love. Sure you can argue that Zapp & Roger’s “Computer Love” was a progressive R&B song designed specifically as smashing music, but I would volley Prince’s “Computer Blue” right back at you and contend that the world is not quite ready for inter-mechanical relationships.

But what if we were? What would that look like? The new video for SoCal indie pop five-piece Wartime Recitals‘ “Bad Dances” imagines what a robo-human dating situation might look like. Turns out–pretty much exactly like your average melodramatic relationship on The OC. 

Over an upbeat piano progression, with occasional fluttering guitar flourishes–like the nervous pitter-patter of an anxious heart–lead singer Jonathan Krueger and featured vocalist Morgan Paros sing the track’s key lyrical refrain with genuine earnestness and trepidation: “We can’t control the blood flow.” As this message of the heart’s vicissitudes embeds itself in your brain, we see our robot protagonist, A7, dealing with a messy breakup in real time. He toys consistently with the idea of deleting his memory of his ex, sort of like how you might threaten to unfriend an old boyfriend/girlfriend in a feeble attempt to try to exert some sort of agency over a shitty, painful situation. Though this story ultimately has a happy ending, the song’s message hits the hardest when A7 refuses to excise pain from his memory, even though it would be so easy.

When dating robots inevitably becomes socially acceptable, I have feeling we will all be returning to “Bad Dances” quite a bit.

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Make sure to check out Wartime Recitals’ self -titled EP on Bandcamp for more indie jams!