“Chain smoke and heavy drinking, it’s all I can do.
So hard to find a person in life like you.
It’s everyday love, we are used to it
but it crucifies me that you’re not in it!“’
When love between two souls is genuine, it can be exquisite and agonizing: the joy of union equals the dopamine high of a narcotic; the cold turkey of withdrawal comes with the despair of separation. While most love songs focus on the sublime feelings of puppy love, grand romantic gestures or the intense drama of breakup, Lebanon Hanover stays on their unique brand of dour resignation…and rests upon the grief of missing.
The pandemic changed the game for millions across the globe, and their new single “Hard Drug” (Fabrika Records) captures the morose realization of an insurmountable obstacle to reunion. Written for their 2020 album Sci-Fi Sky, Lebanon Hanover ponders those bittersweet memories that get numbed out of us with endless handles of whisky and a few packs of Camels.
The video, scripted by Larissa Iceglass herself and directed by Piotrek Noisoireaux and Joanna Badtrip, follows a couple living parallel lives separately – reading the same books, guzzling merlot in order to dull the pain of loss; tracing the miles of separation on a map; glumly staring out the window sucking down a cigarette as memories are tattooed on their arm. Can digital communication and social media replace that real deal camaraderie? Of course not, but for so many, that was our sole means of connection. Love at arm’s length, echoes of affection tapped out by fingertips on a cracked screen.
Our star-crossed lovers endlessly replay their simple, everyday pleasures in their imaginations through flashback: checking out flea markets, zipping around on mopeds, playing a game of Elvira pinball. That hasn’t changed; the only difference is that they no longer share these everyday experiences together, and the agony is crippling. We don’t know the reason of their separation, nor does it matter – all they care about is ending their pain.
Dwelling on the melancholy brings false comfort; misery masquerades as a pacifier. Sometimes one gets addicted to that very pain, however, instead of seeking happier paths…and you find yourself lurking the shadows, slowly poisoning yourself to death instead of healing. This is a very real lamentation the world felt during lockdown, and it’s refreshing to sit with this specific anguish and let it have its (hopefully fleeting) moment.
Watch the video for “Hard Drug” below:
Lebanon Hanover’s most experimental album to date, Sci-Fi Sky, is an interdimensional bridge between hope and despair bringing light into an era of profound darkness. Sci-Fi Sky is out now via Fabrika Records.
The album can be purchased here.
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