aaron xx

3y

why isnt my brother the wind on this

Ezra

3y

· edited

There's an interesting visual progression in three of the music videos from this album. Walking being the key repeated visual element.

Sentry, Vin Skully, and now 100 High Street all feature Early walking in some capacity, through different kinds of environments. The progression seems to go in order of when the videos were released (Sentry, then Skully, then 100 — which interestingly is the reverse sequence from how they appear on the tracklist).

In Sentry him and Mike are trapped in these repeated loops. They both walk the length of a single dingy hallway over and over again. Earl walks forward/toward the camera repeatedly. At the end of his walk he turns the corner into another space but the video cuts. He is teleported back to the start of the hallway and has to begin the journey again. Then when Mike comes in, he walks the same hallway but this time backwards. He effectively 'undoes' or retreads the journey Earl made, walking the same path but in reverse. The 'loop' metaphor seems to work double duty as both visually representative of the auditory sample, but also of being kind of caught in this journey for escape that can't quite be fulfilled.

In the Vin Skully video Earl is now walking in place. In each shot he walks on a treadmill, striving to move while remaining still. The spaces and environments that he inhabits in this video are a lot brighter than Sentry. He walks through a calm but empty domestic space, and a bright open church. With this video there's some progress, a kind of positive change taking place, but one still caught up in stagnancy. If anything the 'walking in place' seems to emphasise how much work and effort it can take to perform normal things when your down, a la: "How to stay afloat in a bottomless pit/ The trick is to stop fallin'/ Only option to start with a step, bet."

Then in 100 High Street Earl's walk is energetic, his propulsion swift. The first shot of Earl, he is seen rushing through a door, as if he's finally made it over the threshold he was striving toward in Sentry. He comes through the door and raps directly into the camera "focus steady and unbroken" which describes both his mentality and his gait. He walks through a music hall or school of some sort. The video ends with him on stage facing out to an empty venue ready to perform. Overcoming his struggle and making it from the dingey looping hallway to the open performance hall.

And it doesn't seem like a coincidence that Earl and Alc's previous collab track "Loose Change" has a music video which sees Earl performing on stage to a full and vibrant audience.

2words

3y

Did you guys know they played two Earl songs on the OVO radio show for FATD release too? They played AM from IDLS, and El Toro Combo from Feet of Clay

Mims_OG

3y

The Caliphate

One of the best track this year