Last year, London four-piece Malady landed with a bang when they dropped their debut single, “London, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” (followed soon after with a dub remix) and now they’re back with the visuals for their second single, “Famous Last Words”.
The new track continues on from their debut, but leans a little closer to its dub version with hints of Martin Hannett’s production style in the 1980s. The jangling guitar melodies are submerging them in an underwater, dubby production style, but that murkiness is offset by singer and guitarist Percy Junior Cobbinah’s wry lyrics and striking delivery.
Maintaining that energy, the video from fraternal directors Will and Ed Reid takes us through the disorienting claustrophobia of a packed club. Quick snippets of off-kilter images flash across the screen as we stumble along, struggling to keep up with Cobbinah’s existential musings.
Speaking on how the video came together, the Reids explained: “When we came to work on ‘Famous Last Words’, we wanted to build on the mood of our first video with Malady for ‘London, I love you…’—that video was a big atmosphere piece that looked at the sense of being trapped inside the machinery of a city and being isolated in a massive metropolis. With this video, we wanted to take the microscope and place it over the atmosphere of a club night – a gathering that almost begins to take on a religious weight where you’re searching for something—anything—to take meaning from it.
“This is the concept we then developed with the band into the visuals: the idea of chasing the night for answers and coming up short. Again, we wanted it to be heavily atmospheric and experiential and not directly literal, but more something you felt as you watched it. It had to get a bit surreal and disorienting too. We continued the inclusion of narrative textures from the first video, with black and white sound designed scenes to take us into more of a short film moment and capture the chaos and disorientation of a smoking area deep in the belly of the night.
“We finish with Junior’s pseudo divination after he overcooks it and collapses to the floor surrounded by everyone and no one at the same time… big shouts to the mad crew we had here to bring it all together on a tight schedule and budget. Big love to the band for trusting us with this one too!”
Hit play on the visuals at the top and add “Famous Last Words” to your playlists.
