The synesthetic power of shoegaze can direct visuals in a number of directions, let alone the sensual feelings associated with them: starry skyscapes and the wonder of space, or the powerful tidal flow of the ocean and its feeling of graspable infinitude, or perhaps images a little more morbid. The beautiful and grim come together in Them Are Us Too’s aquatic new video for “Eudamonia,” off their debut LP, Remain, released on Dais Records. Shots of a dimly spot-lit body of water, almost velvety in its appearance, open the scene, with the duo’s own Kennedy Wenning floating in the dark, a body in a black bathing suit almost invisible among the curiously blackened water. She keeps her head above water, singing her song, the sound of her voice soaring over the slow flares of bassy synth tones crawling underneath, a foreboding sea slug of sound in the depths.
The camera begins to pay attention to Cash Askew, the band’s other half, lingering on land among a leafy backdrop of secrecy. Somewhere along the line, what appears to be a plum is introduced to both of them, and is consumed. The synths oscillate and Wenning’s vocals seem to shift astronomically towards heights reflective of the band’s Cocteau Twins influence better than ever. Her repetition of, “I can’t say no to that” echoes the Eden-like quality to the scene, exhibiting a certain curiosity, or perhaps a lack of will, in biting into the “forbidden fruit,” which immediately causes bleeding from the mouth, and then her apparent drowning. Camera shots becomes less steady, focusing now on Wenning’s worried expression and flailing limbs in the water, and the mood turns into the panicked disbelief of someone who just unknowingly ingested poison as the song fades in an instrumental conclusion.
