JP Chartrand, who most notably directed the video for Katy Perry’s 2017 summer anthem, “Bon Appétit,” combines his hyper-surreal style with the perfect decade to play it up: the 70s. Infusing Mark Ronson and Lykke Li’s video for “Late Night Feelings” with the sort of dingy decadence that the era of corruption was known for (never quite taking it to all out sumptuousness the way the 1980s did), we open on Lykke Li bursting out of the bathtub with a wine glass next to her to the appropriate lyrics, “I weigh the water, I feel it all.” With the backbeat itself punctuated by the signature flute that made Van McCoy’s “The Hustle” the sound of the era, we’re immediately in the drug-addled mind frame of being in the 70s and obsessed with a teen idol.
As she wipes the steam from the mirror, we see the first framed picture of the ultimate object of her infatuation and late night feelings, Mark Ronson, re-styled into some sort of 70s heartthrob that never had a chance to create a song as annoying as “Uptown Funk.” Sipping from her wine as she sits next to the photo mentally preparing to transcend into the glamorous, wig-wearing star she needs to be in order to catch Ronson’s eye, she gently touches his face as though he can really feel her.
Getting a burst of energy (maybe she found some coke before taking the Quaalude-looking pill that transports her into a sunken place later on in the video), she rips the towel off to flash the picture of Ronson her goods before blow drying her hair and taking her favorite perfectly coiffed, shoulder-length red wig off its head to put on her own. Along with some white feathered cuffs and a few martinis poured here and there to set the tone of 70s style, Li is suddenly feeling very good indeed. Even if she’s still yearning and burning for Ronson. It’s a pleasant burn (like a yeast infection or something. No?).
Staring at herself in the mirror in a shot that creates the perfect double image, it’s clear that the only one Li loves more than Ronson is herself. Then again, there is a certain necessary self-love ritual that goes hand in hand with a woman “getting ready” (see: Ciara’s “Thinkin Bout You” video), so maybe it isn’t narcissism so much as the mere enjoyment of “the process.” As she lies down on her shag carpet to pop her mysterious pill, a peak 70s-era TV flashing Ronson on its screen appears in the background. Sinking through her rug and back into the bathtub, an ad infinitum sort of shot gives the viewer the sense that Li is willing to die and be reborn again and again until she finally meets the target of her late night feelings.
In this regard, maybe the message behind the video is that if you will something strongly enough, it just has to happen, for by the end, Li is suddenly with the one she loves–even if he seems nonplussed by her presence. Dancing some fervent witch dance before the television in her silk robe, Li is all at once (well, after a lot of collapsing and writhing and caressing) transported to the stage of the television, now outfitted in thigh-high black boots and a black leotard. That’s right, she’s sharing the TV screen with him as his backup dancer (what’s more, with Ronson’s now signature/perfectly-suited to the 70s broken heart disco ball topping off the frame). Maybe dreams really do come true, even in times as depressing as the 70s. Hence, maybe even also now. Then again, was it all in her head? Just another pleasant after effect of the drug cocktail she was jiving on the entire night.
