Pixar’s 2015 hit Inside Out color-coded emotions and made a complex system disarmingly approachable for kids or adults that have been going to therapy most of their lives. Now if there was sequel, there would probably be more complex colors signifying more complex emotions. As one hits puberty and young adulthood, there’d have to be one for anxiety and existential dread. Maybe there’d even be an exclusive one for coping with universal catastrophes. Alas, with no sequel on the horizon, LA group The Regrettes have taken it upon themselves to imagine what another hue might look like.
In the Dillon Dowdell-directed video for “Monday,” their first song since last year’s “I Love Us,” we’re thrown back to a middle school dance “sometime in the 2000s.” There’s plenty of Axe body spray, butterfly clips, and scene accessories. As the band is getting ready, an odd pink character appears to irritate the hell out of lead vocalist Lydia Night. She revealed that, “‘Joy—a spooky pink character representing the false image of one’s ‘perfect and ideal self’ which began to taunt me and I think many people in middle school. She will be an ongoing character and theme in music to come. We had a blast making it with some of our besties.”
Later, during the dance, things get a bit surreal and Joy wreaks havoc. But, don’t worry, Olivia Rodrigo is there to keep the music going as the party’s DJ, blasting the Regrettes’ punchy pop music. “Monday” captures both the cringe parts of the middle school age and the euphoric way to dance the anxiety away.
In regards to the song, which was written via Zoom with producer Tim Pagnotta, Night continued: “At the time I was pretty much at the peak of my anxiety disorder, every morning I was waking up and absolutely dreading the idea of functioning and being ‘productive’ (whatever the hell that even means) for another day. Like most of us, I was still at home, where all my issues still existed. So, whatever I was dealing with didn’t slowly fade away while stuck in traffic on the way to go write somewhere. I didn’t have the space to think of ‘what do I want to write about,’ instead, I just rolled out of bed and all my horrible fucking thoughts were still with me, just waiting to be unboxed.
“As LA locked down, I felt a huge part of my identity and ego being stripped away because of no touring, and no connecting with people at our shows. I’ve been touring since about age 12, so I had to come up with a new way to function in the world. It was really rough, and still is rough, but I found writing this song to be super therapeutic.”
Watch “Monday” Below.
