The Lost Buoys is Clock Opera’s latest single from their debut album, released earlier this year. It features New Tricks actor, Alun Armstrong and his descent into madness. Maybe it’s Alzheimer’s. It’s just bloody heart-breaking.
The concept works well in relation to the album concept (Ways To Forget); ‘Belongings’ and ‘Once and For All’ came out earlier this year, and the videos provide a similar view of isolation. Favouring close up shots of faces, it’s impossible not to empathise with the protagonist. The videos are self-contained short films. Unfortunately, unlike the earlier two, ‘The Lost Buoys’ does not feature Guy Connelly’s lovely bearded face.
All doesn’t seem to be going that well for Alun right from the off; his wife throws her dinner on the floor, and it looks as if there’s been some tax evasion going on. As his wife and daughter leave him, it doesn’t exactly get better. Rife with hallucinations, posh Alun running about in his paisely dressing gown, and boarding up the winders of his very lovely stately home before drinking wine with seaweed or something in it. Even the wallpaper gets trippy. The end is a shot of Alun alone in his canoe, floating in his lake with all his valuables.
The song itself has all the famillar, layered synthy characteristics you’d expect from Clock Opera. It’s a cracking tune and the video evokes all of the feelings.
Ways To Forget is out on Moshi Moshi/Island Records now.
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By Maddie Russell
Dance Yrself Clean
