Something that sorta threw me off while reviewing Alice Cohen’s latest Olde English Spelling Bee album Into The Grey Salons were her occasionally building “instrumental” tracks. Why the quotes? I mean, in “The Apothecary,” she’s humming and “ooing” and “ahhing” with the melody, but it’s completely lryicless (from what I can distinguish). Thrown into the heavy midst of crack-shot pop hits like “Backwards,” receiving a video for “The Apothecary” shares how these “instrumental” tracks — without lyrical direction — help listener’s individual creativity run wild. So it’s interesting to see how director Stephanie Wuertz took upon this music video in essence of freeing one’s mind (as suggested in the music), than directing it specifically. Prior to watching this video, I had no idea what Alice Cohen was getting at visually with “The Apothecary.” Sounds silly, but that’s the flip of it, right? Like, in no way do I have a clear understanding of what’s happening in the video for “Backwards,” but the lyrical content could instill a visual within my head considering the vocal direction. Stephanie Wuertz’s interpretation (and potentially Alice Cohen, or whoever helped behind the scenes) opens “The Apothecary” within a dark world of a lurid female character who is whisked away by narcotics to a paradise that I’d probably like to visit. What were you thinking while listening to “The Apothecary” when it popped up for the first time while listening to Into The Grey Salons?
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