Exclusive: The latest from 20-year-old songstress Poppy Jean Crawford is menacingly sensual.
The power of Poppy Jean Crawford comes from its eerie familiarity. It's not that the 20-year-old singer, songwriter, and guitarist -- recently signed to Danger Mouse's 30th Century Records -- doesn't have a sound all her own; her reverb-drenched mixture of lush, organic guitars and lilting vocals adds a dreaminess to her songs plenty of her peers shy away from. It's more that the echoing production over the old-school indie rock riffs of her songs feel like a song you don't quite remember booming out of your past. The result is a spooky, subconscious sonic collision of Siouxsie Sioux, Hurray For The Riff Raff, and Florence And The Machine that's both evocative and deeply satisfying.
The video for Poppy Jean's latest single, Same Old Tricks, takes the viewer down that specific route of low-to-the-ground yet seemingly otherworldly. On the one hand, the whole video -- directed by Shane McKenzie and shot by Taylor Leach -- could've been made in the back of a community theater, with its simple vintage masks, disco-ball mannequins, and Crawford's sequined jumpsuit coming out of a vintage scene shop. On the other hand, those simplistic elements, coupled with the singer's dominating sneer and her slow-mow swaying with her guitar, make the whole thing feel even more like a window into the room in your mind you're scared the visit.
In Poppy's words, "For me the video is meeting someone for the first time. It’s meeting me for the first time. It’s a person seducing you with all their tricks. Making you see double. With the truth slightly peaking in."
Check out our exclusive premiere of Same Old Tricks below:
Poppy Jean Crawford's new EP JEANJEANIE comes out November 1 via 30th Century Records, and is available for preorder.
