Last month, Matt Berninger of The National and Brent Knopf of Menomena dropped the second single from their collaborative project, EL VY—the sultry “I’m the Man to Be.” Today, the duo have released a lyric video for the album’s third single, “Paul is Alive.”
Like “I’m the Man to Be”‘s clip, “Paul is Alive” was directed by Berninger’s brother Tom, who also shot the National tour film Mistaken for Strangers. The song finds Berninger in a playful mode, dragging his baritone as low as it can go as he ticks off a list of the bands playing Cincinnati’s Jockey Club while he sat outside, “crying in [his] 7-Up.” Meanwhile, Knopf’s ticklish synths shake up a Halloween rhythm that highlights the twinkle of irony in Berninger’s voice.
As Pitchfork reports, Berninger called “Paul is Alive” “very much my story of what Cincinnati was like, growing up and falling in love with music, discovering these little places where like-minded people could find each other.”
EL VY’s Return to the Moon is out October 30 on 4AD.
(via Pitchfork)
