Helena Deland has shared a visualizer for her new single “Pale,” off the Montreal-based singer/songwriter’s upcoming debut LP Someone New due out October 16th via Luminelle Recordings. As previous singles like “Truth Nugget” or the collection’s title track have revealed, this is an album filled with intimate observations on the nature of interpersonal relationships. Discussing the track, she explains, “‘Pale’ is about the little space left to the actual self in romantic relationships where idealization comes into play.”
A haunting melody of organ and strummed guitar set the mood here, but the song’s fluid and off-kilter rhythmic structure point to the deeper matters at hand. The give and take required of our intimate relationships is revealed to be an emotional power struggle between the self and the other. But, as Deland relays, our intimate connections also require us to confront our own Idealized Other, as we try to balance that version of our deepest desires against the human realities of relating in the 21st century.
The visualizer for “Pale” echoes the track’s back and forth feel with the stuttering image of flowing water. Bearing out the notion of a nuanced power struggle at the heart of our romantic relationships, Deland says of the video, “The stream in the visualizer represents the question of control when control is ultimately impossible.”
