Kevin Bronson on July 7th, 2020

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Sam Valdez makes folk music on low flame, smoldering shoegaze emboldened by rich vocals that give her confessionals an immersive aura. The follow-up to the L.A.-based singer-songwriter’s 2018 EP “Mirage” has been simmering a while, but the first half of 2020 has brought the release of two promising singles.

This week Valdez unveiled the video for the breakup song “Toothache,” directed by Nazrin Massaro. “For the video we borrowed this old car and shot around Echo Park in L.A.,” says Valdez, who grew up in Nevada and whose first instrument was the violin. “I wanted to shoot in my apartment and around my neighborhood because the song is really personal and I wanted it to feel like the experience I was having.”

That song, released in April, was followed last month by “Clean,” which similarly feels like a dog-eared photograph from a past relationship. Valdez has a way of turning them into pretty pictures.

||| Watch: The video for “Toothache”

||| Also: Stream “Clean”

||| Previously: “Turn,” “Farther Away,” “Hours”