With the upcoming release of Lykke Li’s fourth album, the sign of the times entitled So Sad So Sexy, the requisite music video promotion of the single “Deep End” is upon us, with a visual motif that is highly reminiscent of the “vertical video” Nicki Minaj released for “Chun-Li” before giving it a proper go with the Steven Klein-directed version (mind you, this was a few weeks ago, when she still had yet to be accused of all-out cultural appropriation). However, in “Deep End,” Lykke Li tries a little harder to give the structure something more of a narrative as she offers the sort of cinematography that can best be described as “artistic porno.”
Commencing with sinister notes, the lo-fi sound of the track is aided with producers that include Jeff Bhasker (a frequent collaborator of Kanye, himself recently the culprit behind “Accelerate,” in addition to making ignorant statements), Malay (known for his work with Zayn and Frank Ocean) and last, but not least, T-Minus. Thus, tonally, this is something of a departure for Li (not to be confused with Chun), who has always been a nepotist of jarring guitar chords and piano notes. In the first scene, as she points the video camera with its flash on in the direction of herself in the mirror, an ambient dripping noise can be heard in the background, followed by her legs swung over a perch overlooking a pool. At times sounding like the song itself was recorded underwater, Li echoes the sentiments of Uffie in “Drugs” as she recounts, “I wait up, don’t wanna wait up for you, baby/Still I wait up, lonely in the canyon/No love, there’s no love, reflecting in the glow of million dollar man.”
The suggestive nature of the swimming pool image as it pertains to the object of affection she’s referring to and his cheating reaches a crescendo with, “Indigo, deep blue, deep blue/Oh, baby I know where you’ve been/I know where you’ve been, in the deep end/Swimming pool, swimming pool.” Then, of course, there’s some allusion to orgasm for good measure as she practically wails, “I was only gonna touch ya, now I’m in it/I’m in it, swimming in it/I wasn’t gonna love you now/I’m so fucking deep in it/I think I feel another wave, another wave.” For her, that might be sexual satisfaction, but for the rest of us, the wave is more telling of the iPhone-filmed music video under the guise of being a “creative choice.” While that might have been true when the technology was still new, it seems the style of its use has remained unable to advance (the only exception to the rule being Sean S. Baker’s new Christmas movie classic, Tangerine), relying solely on the irritating aspect ratio and gritty scenes that only come across as gritty because no one thought to buy a fucking Steadicam.
As she goes out to the club to join her Million Dollar Man in question, the claustrophobic, sweltering nature of being in this context is easily evoked with the confining parameters of the iPhone. Filming herself in the bathroom again here and making out passionately with her guy there, Li eventually finds herself filming herself and bae in the swimming pool (as though an unpaid advertisement for what the most expensive–read: waterproof–iPhone can secure you for adequately portraying your lifestyle).
Flitting from venue to venue, shots of Li and her boyfriend in the back of the Uber (or Lyft or Juno or whatever other off-brand car app there is), one thing that can be said of the iPhone approach as that we feel the exact same level of disjointedness and out of body-like experience as Li herself, all too ready to succumb to pleasure by the hazy, blurred out end. In effect, this video is perhaps her unwitting homage to living in Bushwick in 2005 (which, yes, she did–at just the tender age of nineteen–so fuck you, Halsey).
