Sometimes, I forget that "Up In Hudson," the grandiose masterpiece from the Dirty Projectors' latest self-titled record, is about the dissolution of a relationship. Maybe it's the extravagant horn section, or scattering percussion, or melodic twists of Dave Longstreth's vocals that, every time, manages to captivate me for the winding eight minutes of the song and make it feel utterly spectacular.
Then there's that surprisingly bitter chorus: "Love will burn out, love will just fade away / Love's gonna rot, love will just dissipate," aggressively sandwiched between a somewhat fanciful retelling of Longstreth's and, now, former member Amber Coffman's relationship. Ten months after being released as the first single, his open-chested tell-all has been given an accompanying video.
Featuring a Tim Burton-esque cast of characters that dance, ice skate and conduct rush-hour traffic, the four-act visual pretty perfectly matches the theatrical ambitions of the song. Surreal and quirky, with a thin thread of melancholy stringing it all together (after all, this isn't a happily-ever-after), the storytelling makes it feel less like a depressive break-up plot, and more like a wistful sigh-of-an-homage to something that was great.
Dirty Projectors is out now via Domino Records.
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