BY IAN URRUTIA
Drift off with Populardays’ latest venture into dream-pop with “Lost In Space,” their first release since 2014’s critically acclaimed full-length album, Somewhere In Time.
In the full-face video for the gossamer tune, independent actress Cuckooh Calsado shows a full range of emotions that one encounters during a romantic dissolution. It’s interspersed with band performance against a backdrop of neon projections, but careful not to steal the limelight from the drama.
Like the arresting simplicity of Janelle Monae’s “Cold War” and Sinnéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares To You,” the visual pares down the concept with an intimate clip that conveys vulnerability by just showing the face, the theatricality behind the spectrum of expressions, and how it lives through the moment—from the best and worst times. It helps that Calsado just looks through the camera without holding back: she’s obviously the thread that connects the whole, and with the song’s glorious progression and late-night atmosphere, the experience of watching her dive into the struggle and own it with dignity only gets better—not in a tortured porn sense, but in a way that is soulfully emancipating. In the end, you want to root for her, hoping she wins in life.
Watch Lost In Space
