8Tracks Review: “Round and Round” Music Video by Alfa

I conjure up the colors in your eyes

Alfa released a new music video April 12 for “Round and Round,” a track on June 2017’s album Spark & Fury, which you should totally check out if you haven’t already heard it.  I think it’s an interesting choice for a music video since it’s not one of the more memorable songs on the album, but there aren’t any bad tracks here, so why not?  The video is “directed by my hubby,” Rob Bieselin, she says on Twitter.

The one who’s on your mind

I only became aware of Alfa a couple of months ago, so something is definitely wrong with my music radar, because she should have crossed my path ages ago.  She has a voice with flavors of Divinyls singer Chrissy Amphlett’s I’m-being-coy-but-I-could-get-psycho-on-you-at-any-time delivery, plus a little bit of Natalie Imbruglia.  The easiest comparison (‘though not on this song) is to Ingrid Michaelson’s ukulele-driven, playful, joyous thoughfulness, but I hear a pleasing edginess that makes Alfa more interesting.

It’s a pretty good video.  I’m fully down with the video-projected-on-and-past-her device, and except for the creepy eyes on both sides of her body part, I like the choices.  Alfa occupies the same spot in the frame throughout the song, so we get movement mostly from her body angle and the shifting light from the projected video.  I could do without Alfa’s actual spinning, which I find heavy-handed.  Cuts to different angles work for me, though.

The song’s theme is pretty heavy, and Alfa has nice screen presence, so at first the clips where she’s messing with her hair disappointed me.  In these shots where she’s not singing the words, it would have been bolder to let her just look into the camera without distracting hand movement.  However, we do get that long, lonely gaze at the end.  I really admire this decision and the video works better without preludes to it earlier in the sequence.

Those last fifteen seconds make the video for me, and I like the song quite a bit more than I did before I saw it.

Keep on going

site, tube, vimeo, fb, bndcmp, amzn (where Spark & Fury streams free for Prime members), itns, twttr, sptfy, ig

Alfa’s YouTube stuff is great.  I love the acoustic living-room-type versions of her recorded music (including “Round and Round”), but this kazoo tutorial is my favorite.