Video: Valley Queen, ‘Cassavetes’

Kevin Bronson on January 31st, 2023

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Natalie Carol’s vocal superpowers were on full display on Valley’s Queen’s 2018 debut album, “Supergiant,” but the indie siren reaches a new (and different) level of effervescence on the trio’s new single, “Cassavetes.”

The song introduces the band’s sophomore album, “Chord of Sympathy,” out April 21.

Carol explained the general tenor of the new album this way: “I see a lot of the writing I do as sourced from a wound, or sourced from love and abundance. Both are valuable. Our full-length debut ‘Supergiant’ was written from a lot of wounding, but ‘Chord of Sympathy’ plays more like a love letter out to the world. Writing this one, I had more access to my inner love, which I wanted to share as a source of comfort for people who listen to our music. ‘Supergiant’s’ yin has been answered by ‘Chord of Sympathy’s’ yang.”

So skyward her voice goes on “Cassavetes,” something of a purge followed by a rebirth. In director Cooper Kenward’s video, Carol and bandmates Neil Wogensen and Mike DeLuccia trash and burn a lot of things — including a copy of that debut album.

“There’s a thread throughout [John] Cassavetes’ films centered around selfhood: its nebulous nature, our ability to project it onto other people, how we try on different selves to be accepted or loved,” Carol says. “When weaving this idea together with the story of Valley Queen, I realized a lot of this record is about taking off older outfits of selfhood as the outside world perceives it, in this case as a songwriter, recording artist and band. Cooper suggested we light it all on fire. I thought that was perfect. That’s how it felt when we were arranging and recording this record, like we had burned something down and started over.”

The album will include the single “Falling,” which came out last May.

||| Watch: The video for “Cassavetes”