Following the release of Jordan Laser's single, 100 Days of Solitude, on Tuesday, here at RUUSH we're spotlighting the Sydney-based singer-songwriter with an exclusive first look at her newest music video. For those of us who can read between the lines, the single is a spellbinding entry to the Sydney lockdown canon.
In the early days of the pandemic, people began revisiting literature dealing with plagues and disease like Albert Camus' The Plague and Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera, a title that inspired many hackneyed riffs (see: Love in the Time of Corona). But it was García Márquez's other classic, 100 Years of Solitude that Jordan Laser was drawn to. Solitude as it turns out, is a state that would become all too familiar to us.
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Crafted after emerging fresh from heartbreak, 100 Days of Solitude explores a dual kind of solitude, forced upon Laser both emotionally and physically. "I was drinking too much, living on my own and in love with a man who’d just disappeared on me," she said. "I had this creeping realisation that he wasn’t who he said he was, which proved to be true. So this song is about trying to find hope in a hopeless situation, and coming out with a little more stamina on the other side.”
Of all the artists Laser is most inspired by, it's Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks that bleed through most when you first hear her new track. Their presence is eminent in the hazy vocals and the mystical direction of the music video. In fact, there's something undeniably witchy about Jordan as she wonders through an empty estate, swathed in an enviable mint nightdress. Is it the blanket of mist that engulfs her? Or maybe it's the deft lighting; both silvery, streaming through arched windows then glowing amber under lampshades. Whatever it is, Laser has found a kindred spirit in us.
Produced alongside The Preatures, Jack Moffit, and mixed by Dann Hume, 100 Days of Solitude is nothing short of ethereal. In the short period since Laser's previous records Slow Motion and Battleship her music has gained a quiet strength. Are we surprised? After all, Laser did hope to surface from the bleak and lonely landscape of 2020 with extra stamina, with resilience. It's safe to say that she's achieved this and anyone searching for evidence, need only look in the direction of 100 Days of Solitude.
We think we've found the perfect soundtrack for our remaining days in lockdown. You can listen to 100 Days of Solitude on Spotify and Apple Music.
Watch the exclusive and hypnotic music video to Jordan Laser's 100 Days of Solitude below.
