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While Sophie Ellis-Bextor might be a born and raised West London girl, her affinity for Ireland is evident in the video for her latest single, “Stay on Me,” from Perimenopop. Working once again with her fellow Sophie, Ms. Muller, the romantic vision for the narrative is immediately apparent in the first shot, which features Ellis-Bextor silhouetted against the sea in front of her as the black veil she’s wearing whips in the wind. Waves crashing before her, there’s an instant Wuthering Heights kind of feel to it (much to Emerald Fennell’s dismay). All self-torture and seemingly endless waiting.
In the next scene, Ellis-Bextor, outfitted in a very “Victorian-chic” kind of way (complete with her updo of a braided hairstyle), is shown behind the counter of a pub that the viewer later learns is Mike Murt’s in Cahersiveen. Though, even before that, there were plenty of signs that the setting is in County Kerry. Case in point, Ellis-Bextor standing next to an “old-timey” vehicle while perched on Valentia Island Car Ferry. Not to mention later being perched atop the Kerry Cliffs, a key part of the scenery of the video’s location, of which she remarked on her Instagram account, “Obsessed with the beauty of this place.” That much comes across throughout “Stay on Me,” itself an extremely romantic and dreamy track (as are most on Perimenopop). This manifest in the overall theme of the lyrics, which sound, at times, Selena Gomez-y because she’s actually one of the co-writers (along with Julia Michaels, Caroline Ailin and Thomas Hull). And they’re lyrics that are in direct contrast to most pop songs by women in that they suggest an extreme confidence in her lover’s fidelity.
Hence, Ellis-Bextor’s beatific delivery of the verse, “All his fine flirtation/Only lives for me/Such a sweet sensation/That I’m all he sees.” (And, who knows, it’s possible that Gomez was the one who thought of that verse when thinking of her relationship with Benny Blanco.) She then switches to addressing her lover directly in the chorus, “You can have your pick here in this room/Something in the way you move [yes, that feels like an overt nod to George Harrison]/Everyone’s got their eye/Got their eye on you/But I know there’s nothing they can do/‘Cause his eyes stay on me”—switching back to the third person for that last line. Thus, clearly setting herself apart as a POV-alternating queen.
And, talking of alternating points of view, one of the ongoing through lines of the video is Ellis-Bextor acting as though she’s reading from a script to memorize her dialogue. Which is, of course, nothing more than the lyrics of the song. As for the elderly man occasionally shown in the passenger side (or is it the driver’s side, since this is England we’re talking about?) of the “automobile” (a befitting word for its aesthetic) parked on the Valentia Island Car Ferry, perhaps he’s meant to be the “director,” of sorts, of whatever made-up project she’s rehearsing for.
The intensity with which she continues to “study her lines” continues in another scene involving a fresh location: some abandoned-looking mini chateau (or what the Irish would call a “manor”) that she retreats into to keep poring over her script, which Muller closes in on to reveal that, yes, in fact, it contains the lyrics to “Stay on Me,” marked up by Ellis-Bextor, who has now done a hair and wardrobe change for the sake of this simple scene that features her sitting on the staircase of the manor and scribbling fake notes onto her lyrics.
In the next instance of Muller offering up a new location that the viewer hasn’t previously seen, Ellis-Bextor drives up the coast, still with the inexplicable elderly man in tow—something about this giving Madonna carting around an old lady in her car (one of which ends up being stolen) throughout the “What It Feels Like for a Girl” video. Stopping at one point to hang out on the abovementioned cliffs, Muller provides plenty of “romance and yearning, Irish style” via her lush visuals. Ones that, of course, aren’t difficult to create considering how photogenic this part of Ireland is.
Of course, all these shots of “yearning” (/randomly memorizing lines in a manner that makes it look like she’s going to play the part of Eva Perón in a remake of Evita) belie the motif of the song, which is, as the bridge puts it, “They can try/But his eyes stay on me/Yes tonight, yes tonight and for life/His eyes stay on me.” So it is that the video almost suggests a touch of erotomania on Ellis-Bextor’s part, for this man she keeps sounding so sure of is nowhere to be found (unless one counts the three old codgers who stare at her while she’s sitting at Mike Murt’s).
As the video draws to a close, Muller and Ellis-Bextor persist in capitalizing on the Irish setting with the inclusion of a pair of donkeys (see also: The Banshees of Inisherin) framed in the doorway of the manor, adding to the idyllic tincture of the visuals. This prompting Ellis-Bextor to remark on social media, “This is my 19th music video with Sophie Muller and we always have so much fun—I really trust her. It’s our first video involving donkeys though.” And, as Ellis-Bextor closes the door behind her to join said donkeys in the garden (or, to use a less romantic word, “yard”), one is left to imagine that maybe she will meet up with this “oh so steady” bloke of hers offscreen.
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Genna Rivieccio
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