20gayteen isn’t over until Troye Sivan says it’s over. The Aussie pop star is kicking off the new year with a new video for his song “Lucky Strike” off last year’s fantastic Bloom. The video’s summery, romantic vibe is the perfect cure for your January blues.
“Lucky Strike” is a fan favorite track, and for good reason. It’s upbeat and compulsively danceable, with a catchy, clipped chorus. Sivan’s videos are always next-level great, and the visuals for “Lucky Strike” are as striking and iconic as we can expect from the singer.
The video, directed by Emma Westenberg, has a grainy, technicolor vintage aesthetic — think 1950s teen beach movies. (I can’t be the only one who hears the words “Lucky Strike” and immediately thinks of Mad Men.) Sivan’s video is a fun queer spin on what we might think of as a conservative, stodgy decade.
Sivan lusts after a tattooed juice bar employee, exchanging meaningful glances across rainbow striped towels on the beach. It’s hardly a classically nostalgic look at the past, though — if you’re queasy, shut your eyes during the parts where Sivan’s crush makes Sivan a juice from fresh-squeezed human heart juice. Westenberg has a gift for directing striking, unexpected videos. Westenberg’s visuals for Janelle Monáe‘s “Pynk” were some of the most iconic of 2018, and Sivan’s video for “Lucky Strike” is another work of candy-colored genius.
Watch the video for Troye Sivan’s song “Lucky Strike” above.
