White Lung return with a new album called Paradise next month. The follow-up to 2014’s acclaimed Deep Fantasy was produced by Lars Stalfors (HEALTH, Cold War Kids) and spans 10 tracks, including the latest offering “Below”.
A rousing number offset by somber undertones, it sees White Lung examining the value of beauty. “I needed to try to do a ballad about glamorous women,” said the band’s Mish Barber-Way, who once described the song as her “Stevie-Nicks-meets-Celine-Dion ballad.”
“It’s based on a quote by Camille Paglia from an interview she did a few years ago in Toronto,” she added. “‘Beauty fades. Beauty is transient. That is why we value it,’ she said. ‘Feminism’s failure to acknowledge that beauty is a value in itself, that even if a woman manages to achieve it for a particular moment, she has contributed something to the culture.‘ It’s a song about the preservation of glamour and beauty.”
Accompanying the song is a music video directed by Richard Bates Jr. (Excision). It follows White Lung as they perform for a group of Marilyn Monroe lookalikes, one of which is played by Nip/Tuck and Excision actress AnnaLynne McCord. In a statement, Bates Jr. offered context for the clip:
“White Lung plays for an audience of impersonators who come to the realization that they’ve betrayed themselves in the pursuit of fame. ‘Below’ is a love-letter to influential female artists from the past. Our video serves to reinforce the notion that what makes an artist special cannot be manufactured.”
Paradise arrives on May 6th through Domino. For more, check out “Hungry” and “Kiss Me When I Bleed”.
