With Valentine’s Day coming up fast, many of us are just as excited to celebrate our bitterest romantic moments as we are to commemorate our moments of relational bliss—and quite frankly, the former makes for much better music. Kicking off V-Day week, we’re sharing a new visual from LA multi-instrumentalist Aaron Shadrow—who you may have seen behind the drums at a George Clanton show, or jamming on guitar with Arrested Youth—which honors our “not-my-proudest-moment” flings through the language of heartsick ’90s alt-rock filtered through a West Coast garage rock tradition of maxed-out reverb.
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“‘Love Relapse’ is a song I wrote to capture the melancholic juxtaposition between despair and joy one feels when falling in love with somebody who is in another relationship,” Shadrow shares. “Last year, I had a brief affair with a girl who had just had a major fight with her boyfriend of three years. While this was certainly not my proudest moment, I couldn’t stop myself from diving into the situation because I had been completely enamored with her for months prior, and figured I would never have a shot in the first place. The song was written immediately after she left my company and returned to her relationship and regular life, leaving me to cope with the fact that not only had a fantasy of mine come to fruition, but that it had already ended forever.”
The Phillip Soulliere–directed visual recreates this scenario of love-and-immediate-loss with idyllic scenes of Shadrow and a love interest enjoying each other’s company before a suave Clanton swoops in and takes his girl at a party. What follows is the most lovesick shower guitar solo set to film.
Watch the clip below, and stream the track here.
