Ambient Electronic Pop band Fovea recently released an entrancing new video for their song “Cost Of,” off of their debut album Pencil Me In that came out late last year.
The video opens with nondescript scenes of a city as well as a suburban neighborhood. These shots are interrupted by clips of more gruesome images, foreshadowing what is to come. Once the drums in the song kick in, the narrative of the music video begins.
The video follows two couples as they go through pregnancy and childbirth. Although one couple in the video is wealthy and the other is artsier, the two couples ultimately are connected through the same struggles.
Fovea Connects Lyrics and Visuals
Visuals are an important part of telling this story. At certain points, certain scenes are matched up perfectly to certain sounds in the song. Although at face value the tones of the song and the video don’t match up, the two concepts are linked together by these parts of the video.
“Cost Of” incorporates many different styles into this song. The vocals are all very soft and are accompanied by various synths, guitars, and drums. All of these layered sounds give the song a very dreamy, almost trance-like feel. It’s easy to get lost in the story and sound of this video.
When listening closely to the lyrics, the concept of the video becomes more and more clear. The hazy mood and unclear lyrics align perfectly with the guise of happiness that each couple maintains before they have children. As the song builds, the tension in their relationships also build. The lyric “don’t linger” is repeated many times throughout the song which makes sense with each couple’s lack of remorse for getting rid of their newborns.
By the end of the video, one couple has turned their child into an art piece that the other couple ends up purchasing. The song fades out with one of the couples standing with their new artwork, staring off into the distance. Overall, the video is filled with subtle themes and connections to the lyrics that make the whole thing that much more fascinating.