We don't need to talk about his day job or his brother. Will Butler is standing on his own with his solo album Policy on Merge Records. Appropriately enough, that's how the video for 'Anna' - the first single from the album - starts: Will is standing alone on a dirt road, presumably lit up by car headlights.
I wish I could stop drawing parallels between the artist, song and video there, but I cant: As the bare bones synth-pop kicks in - bass drum, snare, and keyboard - Will starts doing his own thing, dancing like some Fosse/Jagger hybrid. Everything about the song and the video feels stripped down, muted, almost low-tech. But then some graphics flick across the screen and build in complexity over the course of the song, a choir of saxophones breaks in, fades in and out and plays over itself, and a piano scratches its manicured nails across an otherwise matte surface. All the while, that one-two/bass-snare beat persists, anchoring the same driving synths. It's deceptive and charming in it's simplicity. And it's all Will:
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