Regardless of whether the memory is positive or negative, there’s something dangerous about replaying an experience like a videocassette tape to the point where it wears out, perhaps skewing in accuracy over time. It’s this sense of vigilance Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness addresses on his new single “VHS,” although rather than serving as a cautionary tale for living in the past the song celebrates those in his life who help keep him rooted in the present—or, essentially, the people who help make his present worth living in.
“Sometimes the stories we tell ourselves about where we come from and what we’ve been through are the very things that keep us from truly living in the moment,” he explains. “I’m no stranger to this trap. If you’re lucky, as I have been, you have people in your life who remind you that living in the here and now frees you from the past and the future. ‘VHS’ was written to remind myself of that universal truth.”
The kaleidoscopic pop single comes packaged with a vibrant lyric video—check that out below.
