"OMG Rock n Roll" - Kevin Morby [YouTube Music Video]

Gearing up to release his fifth full-length album later this month, Kevin Morby has released a wild music video for the song "OMG Rock n Roll." Watch above.

While the sound of the song is a clear throwback to '60s garage rock, the lyrics and video of "OMG Rock n Roll" are a compelling and original statement that leaves more questions than answers. Touching on subjects ranging from the power of music to mortality and the impact of gun violence on society, this is a heavy piece of art that is both serious and fun. We see Morby rocking out with his band, interspersed with a record blender and surrealist visions of the afterlife.

Also of note, the lyrics flip the message from Morby's 2016 track "Beautiful Strangers" as he sings, "Oh if I die too young, Oh if the locusts come" but changes the concluding lines of years ago when he said, "Well then, run, run, run free" and "Let all that I've done be remembered," to a cynical and hardened, "Oh I don't give a fucking shit." He calls out the numbers of people killed in mass shootings, bringing attention to a problem that we as a society have yet to solve — and sadly have grown numb to.

Morby shared his inspiration in a statement through his record label, Dead Oceans:

It’s meant to be playful, despite the morbid subject matter, and sing sonic praise to rock n roll as a religious experience. More than anything – it’s [a song] about gun violence in America. Sutherland Springs, Vegas, Parkland… the list gets longer each year, filled with more cities, more innocent victims and yet nothings fundamentally changed. It’s a sad, scary and ultimately incredibly frustrating affair. We’ve all made peace with the fact that every time we leave the house we could be senselessly murdered at the hands of someone who should never have been given that power. The song is meant to mirror a public tragedy with its hard pan to the choir almost two minutes in. It’s rolling along, living it’s best life, when suddenly, with a gasp, reality has been turned upside down and all there’s left to do is pray to god you don’t die.

Pick up the album Oh My God on Amazon.

For more, check out Kevin Morby's Zumic artist page.