Quickly rising as Detroit's DIY pensive pop priestess, Stef Chura and her captivatingly peculiar lo-fi sensibilities shine and burn playfully in her latest video for "Spotted Gold," the third single from her debut album Messes due out January 27. Chura's candy-colored, battery acid coated disharmonious world beckons late 90's MTV feels complete with pop-star commercialization and her signature voice, which teeters between collapse and eruption, finds its visual counterpart in "Spotted Gold." The colors change quickly like the tuning of an old television set as does the wardrobes of Chura and her bandmates as if to But the most strikingly unsettling element is the montage of
The colors change quickly like the tuning of an old television set as does the wardrobes of Chura and her bandmates. But the most striking element is the montage of rapid-fire imagery depicting activities that are considered taboo (smashing a mirror) and bad judgment calls (pouring milk on a laptop) to completely self-destructive behaviors (drinking poison and playing finger/knife roulette) all of which end as badly as one might imagine. The aesthetic is clean, perhaps even sterile, but in Chura's sugary torment, is messily sincere. It's easy to interpret "Spotted Gold" as a mischievous night out or miscalculated reckless relationship but the lyrics: "Spotted gold turned black and blue" reveal that perhaps Chura's sand-in-the-eyes, hand-on-the-stove universe is less of a lark than it is a tale of emotional masochism and that when a good thing goes bad, well, maybe we are more in control than we think.
No, your toaster doesn't need a bath. Keep tinfoil out of your microwave and check out Stef Chura's series of unfortunate events in "Spotted Gold" below:
