Following the release of her most recent album “Oblivion” on Oct. 24, indie-folk singer Alice Phoebe Lou shows fans the joy, pain and beauty of love in Lou’s “Mind Reader” music video, released Nov. 11.
The song describes a familiar story: the struggles of communication and what’s needed to make a relationship work.
“What am I supposed to do when you give me nothing?” Lou sings as a soft strum of an acoustic guitar backs her voice. “I’m not a mind reader, but I will try for you.”
The narrative of “Mind Reader” itself is nothing new. It’s Lou’s simple, raw voice paired with a touching music video that allows the song to stand out. As the Apple Music description of “Oblivion” aptly describes the album, the “Mind Reader” music video is filled with “Powerful emotions framed within fragile, unadorned arrangements.”
The music video features turtlewithhat, one of YouTube and TikTok’s silliest couple duos. Though known for their comedy skits, videos and quirky internet personas, Izzy Perez and Emma Fuente recraft the image of their comical YouTube characters into a more seriously heart-wrenching version of themselves in “Mind Reader” — as well as in the music video for title track “Oblivion,” also featuring the couple.
Both having an interest in film and the arts — Fuente graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and Perez studied film at New York University Tisch — turtlewithhat act and create their own serious short films outside of their casual YouTube videos, and were also featured in UMI’s “10AM” music video on June 26.
Like in real life, Perez and Fuente play a couple in the “Mind Reader” music video as they kiss, cry and dance together through New York City.
The video depicts the couple through snippets of a relationship, beginning with them in a train, faces mere inches from each other as they share an intimate moment. The music video is beautifully bright and warm at first, but soon shifts as the couple are captured crying and arguing in a car, lit only by a deep, red glow.
The scene is not angry, but sad. Perez and Fuente play a couple seemingly bound together by their love, but pained by it at the same time as they share a desolate silence in a crowded club in one scene and a candidly romantic dance in New York’s Chinatown moments later.
The music video is true to the lyrics of “Mind Reader.” When Lou begs her partner to open up and not “let go of [her hand],” Perez and Fuente do the same, constantly pulling each other together and apart, again and again.
Directed by Jabu Nadia Newman, who also directed Lou’s “Oblivion” music video, “Mind Reader” is a clear representation of Newman’s style. The South African director is familiar with the beautifully poetic and aims to explore the art of “identity, intersectional feminism and underrepresented narratives” through her work. “The Dream That Refused Me,” one of Newman’s short films, does just that as Newman uses her African identity to craft an “experimental visual poem” about African culture and imagery.
As two lesbian women, Perez and Fuente embody Newman’s work; they proudly represent the intersectionality between queerness and feminism. Queer relationships can be painful — the couple in the video struggles to understand and communicate with each other throughout — but also beautiful.
The music video is shot all over, from a carnival to the club. The varyingly chaotic locations contrasted with Lou’s steady voice and the couple’s calm presence allows viewers to feel closer to the couple than ever before. As the low-lit New York City lights illuminate Perez and Fuente’s faces and the camera zooms into their subtle smiles and tears, Newman’s intimate representation of the couple succeeds.
The video ends with a glimmer of hope as scenes showcasing the frustration of Perez and Fuente’s relationship pass by, leading to shots of the couple laying in a field and laughing together while Fuente pretends to propose.
Lou, Perez, Fuente and Newman leave viewers with the lasting reminder that love, relationships and identity can be complicated, yet are worth it in the end — something Lou reminds listeners of throughout “Oblivion.”
Corinna Chin is an Arts & Entertainment Assistant Editor. She can be reached at corinnac@uci.edu.
Edited by Annabelle Aguirre