The song is spectacular, the video is just oddball enough to be awesome. We’re taking about “Colors,” the new single and music video released by singer/songwriter Libby Rodenbough. Likely best known as the violinist for the indie folk band Mipso, Rodenbough last week announced the upcoming release of her first, full-length solo album, called Spectacle of Love. The record comes out officially on May 29, but today you can stream the video for “Colors,” along with the other new single released recently, “Tell Me How,” below at the bottom of the article.
Comprising a morning in the quarantined life of Rodenbough, complete with funky clothes, smoothie making, and stuffed animal batting practice, the video for “Colors” is matched in its delightfulness by a song that occupies that Mipso-mastered space between the indie and the folky. Groovy bass lines and drum beats balance out Rodenbough’s sleepy vocals and bluesy chord progression, and the result is equal parts bittersweet and cool. About the lyrical content, here’s what Rodenbough had to say herself about the meaning behind the song, taken from the single’s official press release:
Of “Colors,” Rodenbough says,” “I wrote this song so many years ago I can’t remember what I was thinking when it came out. But I still identify with the notion of fraudulence—who doesn’t? I guess I have always been big on clothes and shoes and broaches and bolo ties, and like any proclivity it has made me wonder what I’m compensating for. When I was younger and more awkward I felt I was going to have to develop some sleights of hand because I wasn’t exactly high-school hot and it seemed at the time like that was the pinnacle of achievement. I took note of the way people dressed themselves up, not just literally but with tics and quirks and music taste and all the rest, and I absorbed a lot of them into a kind of hodgepodge personality. Since then I’ve been working on relaxing but that comes with a kneejerk fear that, if you peel away those accumulated layers, you end up with not much.”
“Colors” has been released with another song from the upcoming album, titled “Tell Me Why,” which is of a completely separate feel but Stream both that song and the new music video for “Colors” below, and be sure to keep an ear out for Spectacle of Love when it drops on May 29.