Nothing about Vagabon’s “Fear & Force” video prepares you for the way it ends up. The track follows a cute couple on an idyllic day trip into the woods. The pair are captured canoodling on the roof of a car and that already warm image is made even cozier by their fall coats and the 35mm film that the video was shot with. Laetitia Tamko calls for someone to “come back” but the serene and soft delivery keeps the listener from thinking anything is amiss.
Then the pair are on the car ride home and they’re shouting at each other. A car door slamming is reinforced by a swelling in the music and a sudden shift into an angry march. The abrupt tonal shift should feel familiar to anyone who has squandered an otherwise great day with a misplaced word or a petty argument. And it’s just as frustrating to watch other people go through as it is to live it.
“Force” is a standout trackfrom Vagabon’s kinda-sorta debut Infinite Worlds. The project that gestated for three years is full of tracks like it that build to a sudden and cathartic explosion of sound, something that Tamko discussed when she spoke to Uproxx earlier this year. Give it a listen up top and stream the album if you haven’t yet.
