Fenne Lily has won quarantine with her latest music video, ‘Solipsism’. I mean, it’s set in a supermarket. Lily’s latest release is the third single from upcoming album ‘Breach’, due for release on September 18 through Dead Oceans. Watch it below.
‘Solipsism’ must be eligible for some kind of shortlist of Singles Containing the Most Complicated Ideas, and to that end you need to know that solipsism is “the view or theory that the self is all that can be known to exist.” Hey, absolutely no shame if you didn’t know that – I studied English for three years and I had to google it! I only say it, because it’s essential to understand the level of self-absorption running through Lily’s theme – it makes the moment where all the supermarket products turn into brands with her face on so much better.
As Lily starts to really spiral into herself and her solipsism, she begins hallucinating. Moments later, everybody in the supermarket falls away to the side and dies dramatically (including a cameo of her dad). It’s a three-minute masterpiece.
Lily declared in the press release that she wanted ‘Solipsisim’ to be “something that sounded cheerful, about something really not cheerful.” This is exactly the sense you get, because Lily has constructed a whole experience out of doing a standard shop (eggs, cocoa powder, cling film) which becomes less and less comfortable.
The music is energetic but the vocals are slow and intimate. The shop becomes a whole basket of bananas, tomato soup becomes banana soup. In the same press release, she said of the energy in the video, “a lot of situations make me uncomfortable — some parties, most dates, every time I’m stoned in the supermarket.”
In all this hallucinating, Lily starts to see herself in all of the products. This include finding her great pink hair on a tuna as the logo for a brand of tinned tuna (in banana sauce), and a cleaning product called ‘Breach: Seriously Tight Riffs’. All of this only adds to the vividness of the video. For anyone who does most of their thinking in a supermarket, this one’s for you.
‘Solipsism’ is the third single in the build up to ‘Breach’s release in September. It follows ‘Berlin’, which has a more acoustic sound, and ‘Alapathy’. Alongside the video, Lily announced a European tour for 2021; dates are below. You can also catch her at her weekly Instagram live series, The Bathtime Show.
30/04/2021 – Grand Salon – Brussells, BE
01/05 – Bitterzoet – Amsterdam, NL
03/05 – Nochtspeicher – Hamburg, DE
04/05 – Ideal Bar – Copenhagen, DK
06/05 – Frannz – Berlin, DE
07/05 – Mila – Munich, DE
08/05 – Exil – Zurich, SE
09/05 – Magnolia – Milan, IT
11/05 – Das Bett – Frankfurt, DE
12/05 – Le Pop Up – Paris, FR
17/05 – The Cookie – Leicester, UK
18/05 – Phase One – Liverpool, UK
19/05 – The Workman’s Club – Dublin, IE
21/05 – Brudenell Social Club – Leeds, UK
22/05 – King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut – Glasgow, UK
23/05 – Dead Wax – Birmingham, UK
25/05 – Deaf Institute – Manchester, UK
26/05 – Omeara – London, UK
27/05 – The Portland Arms – Cambridge, UK
28/05 – Thekla – Bristol, UK
