A SONG FULL OF CONTRADICTIONS

The music video for “Backbone” – the harrowing new track by Los Angeles based singer songwriter – begins with Sophie Strauss submerged in a pool in the dark – fully clothed and alone. It’s a contradiction, which is fitting – “Backbone” is a song full of contradictions.

Strauss has a deft ability to be intimate in her music without really giving that much away – feelings of softness and warmth contrasted by a cool remove. This presence – a cool and collected way of being both inviting and removed – comes to the forefront in both the lyrical content and video for “Backbone.”

Strauss paints a picture of things that just don’t fit quite right, that feel an awkward. In the first verse of the song Strauss perfectly illustrates these contradictions – in which she sings, in her haunting and delicate voice,

It’s like diner coffee in a shot glass

Like selling your baby teeth to your wife

Like a thief running backwards

It’s like pouring kerosene on a fire blanket

In the video, Strauss seems at home in these awkward situations. She gleefully dances around a golf course with fireworks sparking overhead, and floats in a pool in a long and lacey dress. The video was a collaboration between Strauss and director (and close friend of Strauss) Bella Finn Parisot. Parisot spoke of her professional relationship with Strauss that “she’s not just someone I know well, she is family. So when we work together it’s effortless and fun. We trust each other.

Strauss and Parisot gave Highlark the honor of premiering the new video for “Backbone,” which can be seen above.

[ + ] SOPHIE STRAUSS

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