The world takes a tentative step forward, and I’m in an emotive retro-kissed dream… Snatches of my youth collide with the anxieties of my present, and the future feels hopeful even when the experience we inhabit right now is sad.
Following on from last week’s Fever Dream by Courtney Paige Nelson, this week brings us another slice of 80s-influenced electronic pop music in the form of Rather Be Blind by London-based musician Scout. Channeling modern artists MUNA and Christine & The Queens, Scout has one foot in the past and one in the future. The result is something that feels very now, and yet unapologetically plays with sounds and aesthetics from the New Romantic movement. It makes that sound feel more relevant than ever.
Rather Be Blind is a tear-jerking tribute to realising too late what you had, as Scout explains:
“I wrote this one over a beat I found on YouTube last year. It kinda lives in the same world as the other songs on the first Scout EP and is centered round moving back to North London/Enfield. I speak multiple languages and I heard this line that translated to “I rather be blind than see my life without you” and right away knew I wanted that line in a song. It worked out with the rest of the lyrics so I literally just took it and used it. The song's quite nostalgic, about situationships and not realising what you have until you no longer have it. I want Scout to make people feel a little less lonely in their human experience.”
In addition to the song, I also love the video that accompanies Rather Be Blind. Economical though it is, it takes a mood board approach, weaving together visuals that don’t so much tell a story as make you feel one.