There's a line in the book I'm reading right now that has been stuck in my head since I got to it: "Adults, waiting for tomorrow, move in a present behind which is yesterday...Children don't know the meaning of yesterday, of the day before yesterday, or even of tomorrow, everything is this, now." Part of growing up is gaining a concept of time and feeling the weight of it—and that weight hit me with full force when I read that sentence, and when I watched the above video, for a solemn new song by London singer-songwriter J Churcher, directed by Perfume Genius.
Pieced together from vintage footage of anguished dance moves, the film is the perfect accompaniment to a cold, '80s-sounding ballad that looms over the listener with thoughts like have you realized that you're not in love any more? "'Yesterday' is a song that has existed, in various guises, for some time now," J Churcher told The FADER over email. "The title itself, and the increasing importance of the song to me, relates to its core theme: one of a past that continues to inflect somehow upon the present. Our 'yesterdays' feel very much part of the now, but are simultaneously somehow lost."
He added: "This collaboration with Perfume Genius refers to one of these guises. [The video] is itself a history: a found fragment of footage that attempts to resurrect history for present. The song attests to the paradox of yesterday, and the struggle to remember a past seemingly lost.” Watch it above.
