Los Angeles psychedelic folk-rockers Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros released their self titled third album last year, but the official music video for the record's second single "Life Is Hard" premiered yesterday. You can watch it above.
The clip is made up entirely of newsreel footage from the last 100 years of world history. The song's theme is life is hard, but don't despair because it can also be beautiful, and the videos chosen really showcase the two sides. There is footage of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima in the '40s, race riots in the streets in the '50s, the World Trade Center attack of 2001, and much more. These harrowing videos show the pain and hardship the world has gone through.
However, in with the negative, there are positive clips. There is footage of Martin Luther King walking up to prepare for his "I Have A Dream Speech," astronauts in space for the first time, the destruction of the Berlin wall, and a video of a gay wedding, among many others. It's a very well made project and it tells a powerful story.
Frontman Alex Ebert shared some background on the making of this video with Rolling Stone:
Some of that footage is amazing, when you see World War II and Auschwitz and the Civil Rights Movement and all that, that's just the stuff that was around when film was available to document everything. It's such a small slice of history, but it's so much aggravation and pain and trauma. And yet, there's beauty in it somewhere, in the in-between moments, in the lives and the existence and the survival itself. Enduring itself is beautiful. That's why I felt like the imagery and the song spoke to each other on some level.
The band recently split with singer Jade Castrinos and you can read about it right here on Zumic.
Their self-titled new album is available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon. For more on Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, including news, music, and tour dates check out their Zumic artist page.
Source: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros YouTube Channel
