We here at We Own This Town are big fans of Jordan Lehning. From our original introduction in 2007 via the band Eureka Gold, to his contributions on the sublime Make-out with Violence soundtrack to his plethora of solo albums over the years, he’s proven to be consistently enjoyable. He’s announced a new full-length album entitled Three Colored Walls (Tree Tone) for release on August 6th along with a fantastic new video for the track “Drunk Dreaming.”
The video, directed by the Duensing brothers, has the production values of a full-on short film coupled with an engagingly abstract narrative. The protagonist of the piece (Sari Hoke) awakes and beautifully stumbles through a dance of quilted characters and beasts. If there were a way to portray “Drunk Dreaming” on film, this would be it. Lehning, goggled and quilted himself, speeds toward the scene in a muscle car and is eventually ravaged by the dream figures.
Over on Backseat Mafia, where the video premiered, Lehning describes the song as “a cautionary fairytale that warns us against dwelling too long on things no longer attainable.” The Duensing’s video can certainly be interpreted as such, with Hoke tangling with the figures (the past) before escaping and barely looking back. All that said, it’s also just an enjoyable three and a half minutes that can be enjoyed devoid of interpretation or meaning. Sometimes a mysterious video can be just that, a mysterious video.
Lehning’s track that underlies the entire effort is exemplary of what we love enjoy about his body of work; it’s catchy and upbeat but with just the right dash of melancholy and foreboding. It’s a pop song but it’s layered and nuanced, a listening experience that bears repeating. It’s also a great anticipatory offering for the forthcoming Three Colored Walls album, one that we’re now waiting with bated breath to drop.