The jerks and judders of Mickey Lightfoot's body in the video for his new single "Anxious" are hypnotizing. Tethered to a truck he's dragging through a field, the rapper/singer and producer appears as half-flamboyant rock frontman, half beaten-down soul on the verge of collapse. The track itself sits at the same intersection, mixing pleading vocals—I've had enough of feeling anxious—with stadium-storming guitar riffs and synth stabs that swell from the ground up.
"Life's a journey of ups and downs in which we're constantly fed the need to keep up with Mr and Mrs Brown," Mickey told The FADER over email. "Consuming anything and everything around, but still plagued with frowns. Anxiety when looking in the mirror had become a daily gown. I'd had enough of that feeling, and noticed that behind the pretend smiles, a lot of my friends were feeling the same. Naturally, I put it on a record, as a cathartic way of surviving. The video itself is a simple metaphor of a guy trying to break away from all this crap, but finding whatever you do, some of your steps will always align to the beat of the status quo."
Cop Mickey Lightfoot's Wearing the Rent EP now, and catch him live at luxury streetwear brand UnderatedCo's flagship store in London next Friday, March 11.