Music Video Review: Lauren Marcus A Mistress Of Disguise In SKINNY AND BLONDE Video

Did everyone have a Happy Halloween?  Well, while you are still in your sugar coma (is it from candy or fruity cocktails from a Halloween party?), everybody should take a look at the new music video from Lauren Marcus, she of Broadway’s BE MORE CHILL, among many, many other plays, musicals, cabarets, concerts, and so many other multi-hyphenated things.  In the companion piece to her new single, the singer, songwriter, actress, writer, and fashion icon (and Cat Mom) has gone into the past, while staying in the present.  The present: the single that is loaded up with a positive message for everyone (for women, but, ok, for everyone) about the mistaken propensity toward taking too much to heart suggestions from the internet about, oh, anything in life.  If you listen to the lyrics (and read Bobby Patrick’s review HERE), you will hear the Magical Ms. Marcus’s message: don’t do it.  Don’t conform.  Don’t follow the lead.  Don’t be a lemming.  Do it your way.  Don’t go getting skinny and blonde.  Be yourself.  It is an important message for everyone to hear, especially with such a catchy, bouncy, bop like the one she styled to go with her lyrics.  The single that Lauren built from the ground up is a groovy creation that everyone should be streaming and downloading and putting into their playlists.

And then there is the music video for SKINNY AND BLONDE, and that’s a whole ‘nother thing, altogether.  

Music videos come in all different shapes and sizes (like women) and they are all beautiful works of art (like women).  Some music videos are just a singer at a microphone, being filmed in performance with their band.  Some music videos are one continual fictional story applied to a song.  Some music videos aretwo stories -one fictional story intercut with another story that is the singer singing the tune - ding, ding, ding!  We have a winner!  If I’m being honest, these are my favorite music videos because a) they give the singer more to do b) they are more cinematic and c) they are more fun for us.  Skinny And Blonde is a music video that is all about fun, and part of that fun is the part of the video that is...

The past:  A fascinating fashionista, Lauren Marcus is down for any stylistic adventure, and her main character in Skinny And Blonde is this cool chick in rad sunglasses, nautical stripes, hot pant cut-offs, espadrilles, and a Rosie The Riveter head bandana.  This is the story narrator, rocking out in her vintage looks and singing the vintage-feel song - oh yes, that was plural:  looks.  This narrator has another outfit that looks every bit of the ‘70s housewife done up in something flowing while making the martinis for the after-work gathering where dancing will be danced, drinks will be drunk, and maybe even a doobie blazed up, isn’t it shocking?  Well, after all, it is the '70s, the time for drinks, doobies, and dames being liberated being doing only just what they want.  Back and forth between the two vintage-bedecked narrators the action goes, as they sing right into the camera, all attitude and groovytude.  Then there is the other woman in the video - the woman in the story, the woman in the red convertible with the suitcase that travels from inside the car to the motel room and back to the car and back to the motel room, the woman with outfits galore and wigs to match, not unlike the Halloween holiday that just passed.  What is this gal up to?  What is her grift?  What is her story?  Well… you’re just going to have to watch SKINNY AND BLONDE to find out.

What can be said about the music video without spoiling Lauren’s storytelling objective is that it is an honest-to-goodness music video like the ones we all grew up loving and watching on MTV and VH1, the kind with style and intent.   The Marcus team have stepped up to the plate for the woman who brought us “Party Hat” and a slew of other off-center stories and characters for us to love and adore.  DIrector Nathan Chang keeps the short film moving at a pace that matches the source material, and DP Steven Bailey has cast Lauren in just the right light, caught her in all the good angles, and given her a cinematic representation, not just of her song but of herself, that spells out the kind of artist she is and that she wants to be.  This music video (like the song it plays against) is true Lauren Marcus, and it’s a sign of more good things to come because the single and the music video are part of the announced upcoming album DRUGSTORE, which will feature all material with words and music by Marcus.  The single and the video are short but they are enough to tell anyone what they need to know about Lauren Marcus: she’s got the goods and she’s ready to show them off.   She's also got the wigs and the wardrobe, and that's something that's just as important as the art itself because every woman is a work of art, a walking work of art, and this woman, the artist, and this woman, the art, is looking just fine in this particular light.

Lauren Marcus is celebrating the release of SKINNY AND BLONDE with a concert at Rockwood Music Hall on November 12th at 7 pm.  Reserve a space HERE.

The SKINNY AND BLONDE credits and more:

Director: Nathan Chang

Creative Director: Max Friedman

Director of Photography: Steven Bailey

Executive Producer: Corey Sheppard

Producer: Shelby Smith

Editor: Derek Johnson

Hair/Makeup: Rachel Estabrook

Car and Extra Support Provided by Will Roland and Steph Wessels

Skinny and Blonde

From the upcoming album "Drugstore" 

Words and Music by Lauren Marcus

Shot and produced by Halleloo Creative on location at Sound View Hotel in Greenport, NY in June 2020.

Stream Skinny And Blonde on Spotify HERE.

Recorded at NYC's Power Station. Produced and mixed by Ian Kagey. Mastered by Oscar Zambrano. Arranged by Charlie Rosen. Guitar: Mike Rosengarten. Bass: Matt Scharfglass. Drums: Jeremy Yaddaw. Piano: Rob Rokicki. Saxophone: Josh Plotner. Trumpet: Danny Jonokuchi. Trombone: Becca Patterson. Wurlitzer: Lauren Marcus. Vocals: Lauren Marcus. Backups: Katie Lee Hill, Natalie Walker, Amara Brady, Hana Slevin.

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