Watch the Dramatic Music Video For Foals’ Single “In Degrees”. The band’s song is irresistibly dance-worthy, but you might think twice when you realize what it actually means.
In the wake of English rock band Foals’ latest and fifth album, Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost: Part 1, an apocalyptic music video for a single from the record named “In Degrees” has been recently released, and it’s something of a colorful dystopia.
Directed by Aaron Brown, who had previously worked with other British artists such as Arctic Monkeys for their video “R U Mine” and King Krule for his “Easy Easy” clip, this new music video is quite theatrical, featuring the band playing in the middle of a small isolated concrete arena-like edifice in the beginning as the sun sets behind, with people gradually rushing in to dance along as the band plays. Truthfully, it looks like one last celebration before the end of the world, and the free-spirited atmosphere that is present throughout the clip seems to push towards some sort of hedonistic acceptance of an impending apocalypse.
This is, however, not the case: the track’s title seems to be a nod at climate change, using the word “degrees”, and so do the lyrics: “a lost love in display/bit by bit and day by day”, which makes sense when applied to our crumbling planet. When viewed from a more romantic perspective, though, which is usually the theme around many songs, the track is dedicated to the approaching end of an interpersonal relationship. Perhaps, because of the gloomy lyrics but otherwise cheerful video, this dance party is not a celebration, but rather an act of ignorance towards the ceasing of something that should be taken with greater care and given a larger amount of attention.
This is proved in a statement given by frontman Yannis Philippakis regarding the song and the video. “Essentially it’s about when you’re aware of a relationship slowly slipping away, incrementally bit by bit, there’s no a big dramatic moment, but it’s through the slow drifting apart… And also, the actual phrase ‘in degrees’ also got me thinking that it could work on a duo level about the environment in a way as well.”