The idea of robots making the best lovers/companions is nothing new in our society, yet it seems to be really entering the pop cultural sphere quite frequently of late. At least if we’re going by I’m Your Man and, even more recently, Shakira’s video for “Te Felicito” featuring Rauw Alejandro as the robot (a play on men’s robotic lack of emotion and the fact that women would probably be better off if males were just all-out robots instead of pretending to be human). Maybe it’s all a sign of the direction technology is heading, or maybe it’s just wishful thinking on the part of women who don’t want to bother with the hurt of emotions anymore. And if anyone knows something about the pain of love when it’s over, it’s Tove “Habits (Stay High)” Lo.
However, it seems this time around, she doesn’t merely want to explore that pain through her own perspective, but that of a robot’s. And considering, if this world makes it through the next few decades without imploding, robots could very well be a large part of our romantic lives, it’s not a bad perspective to show. For there are dangers in robots feeling—or “thinking” they “feel”—slighted by a human. Even if that danger is only to themselves.
Just as Woody Allen’s robot-centric Sleeper (initially) took place in the 70s (set two hundred years in the future), so, too, does Tove opt for this time period as her background for “No One Dies From Love.” As the second new single from Tove this year (following her contribution to Euphoria, “how long”), the themes of “No One Dies From Love” are also in keeping with the singer’s long-standing belief, “What I… do best is ‘heartbreak you can dance to.’ This song is that.”
With an opening sequence that features an overhead shot of a series of robots being “made for love” in a factory, we then cut to Tove Lo—bedecked in 70s-era attire—sitting in a car, mentally preparing to get out of it before she’s bombarded by paparazzi. It’s clear to see, in this moment, she’s going for the angle Britney did in “Lucky,” highlighting that while celebrity might be “glamorous” (at least before the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial), it’s still lonely at the top. Enter “Annie,” a robot Tove notices being advertised under the tagline, “With you wherever you go.” She’s quick to order the “product” on a computer-esque apparatus that looks far too sophisticated (and internet-oriented) to have existed in the 70s, but whatever, rich people can get whatever they want no matter the time period.
As the lyrics, “It escalated so fast” are sung, Tove approaches the door, where the Annie 3000 already awaits. Introducing herself to the “being,” Tove then presses on the “button” at the center of Annie’s chest, which seems to activate her into “love mode.” Watching Tove walk away with new “eyes” (or rather, seeing her with invisible hearts where her eyes would be in the mirror of her all-metal face), she becomes even more enraptured upon seeing Tove do her aerobic workout routine (looking very much ready to make a cameo on Physical with Rose Byrne). Bringing her a milkshake (because obviously, people only work out so that they can consume sweet treats without feeling too guilty), Annie persists in watching her with wonder, the reflection of Tove’s writhing body in her face becoming hyper-sexualized thanks to some directorial maneuvering from Alaska (the Brazilian duo, not the drag queen). Having previously directed the video for Tove’s “Are U Gonna Tell Her?,” this time the location of the shoot is Mexico City, in a house fit for an internationally-styled Norma Desmond.
Succumbing to Annie by falling into her arms in the mirrored dance studio, Tove then sings over the scene, “Will you remember us?/Or are the memories too stained with blood now?” The profundity with which this lyric cuts to the core of why so many people need to pretend their ex never existed after a breakup is part of what makes the song so affecting (and why it would have worked well in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). As Tove also put it when discussing the single’s theme, “When you’re with someone for a long time and it ends all of a sudden, it’s like a part of you has died. This person is now a stranger to you. All of the memories are tainted.” That’s certainly the case for Annie after spending so much time with Tove, falling deeply in love with her and then realizing she’s ultimately nothing to this person. Merely a robot to be replaced.
For, just as it is the case with humans (particularly men), Tove is suddenly more interested in getting a shinier, newer model. One named “Eva.” And as Annie blithely carries a cake down the hall (that reads, fittingly, “No One Dies From Love”), she can see Tove greeting the new robot from her perch above the ground floor.
“Wow you’re so pretty,” Tove notes, later adding, “You’re so real.” That one really had to hurt Annie, for isn’t the love they shared real enough for her? Clearly not. And that’s when she goes into the other room and proceeds to rip her own “heart” out. What good did it ever do for her anyway? So it is that she essentially does die from love, the swirl of memories of her and Tove running through her “mind” as she bursts into flames, likely thinking, “I miss all the cool things that we’d do/But what I miss the most is watching movies with you.” Because, let’s be honest, that’s what a modern relationship fundamentally is: watching shit with someone every night.
But let us not forget that this is “A Musical Sci-Fi Love Story,” and Annie can’t really die from her heartbreak, as much as she would prefer to. Which is why she finds herself being revived again by an old woman in a part of the factory where all the heartbroken robots seem to be relegated for a “tune-up.” Or, at the very least, to be sold for their parts later. It is here that the woman “repairing” her assures Annie in Spanish, “Don’t worry, no one dies from love.” Of course, we all know that’s a lie, that a part of ourselves can definitely die after the failure of a love we thought would last only ends.
