A fittingly gimmicky press release announced today that the “apocalypse [has arrived] on the heels of Yo La Tengo’s 30th anniversary as a band” — not because the world is actually ending, nor because whatever doomsday may ultimately befall humankind will actually be synced with the celebration of an 80s/90s indie rock band from Hoboken, but rather because said band has released a new, apocalyptic music video.
Surely you’re thinking, “hasn’t everyone?” And yes, it’s true, just about everyone seems to want to send their own typically uncreative take on apocalypse into the cultural ether. But this particular apocalypse is special for a number of reasons. The first and most important reason is that the video is for Yo La Tengo’s cover of The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love,” which is featured on the band’s next album, Stuff Like That There (out August 28). Secondly, the video sees Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley wandering the streets, stirring the aforementioned end-of-times with The Cure’s lyrics, leading asteroid-like hearts to fall from the sky.
The imagery is the perfect spin on an otherwise hackneyed motif, honoring The Cure’s music’s tendency to make even gleeful declarations sound somehow devastated. It’s hilariously detail oriented, and bears an abundance of fake news reports focusing on assorted personal accounts of the apocalypse — the best being that of a man professing that he doesn’t know how he’s still alive, given that he’s now just a severed head wearing a pair of sneakers.