When the Mercury Prize-winning, Scottish/Liberian/Nigerian trio Young Fathers debuted the second single “Shame” off their recently released second LP White Men Are Black Men Too, they did so with a rather cryptic press statement: “…what does it take to feel better? When will you be happy again? Who cares.
Keep moving and then, a moment and you realise, hey I’m happy, just now, right now and it comes home and you feel no shame. No. Shame.” The group have now released a visual for this rumbling pop tune which hopefully sheds some light on the sentiments conveyed in their opening statement. Speaking with Complex the video’s director, Jeremy Cole, briefly explained his process of coming up with the concept for the visual: “At first listen, I considered ‘Shame’ as a strong, dance-along pop track but with every repeated listen, the track started to sound more sinister and haunting, but you still wanted to dance along to it. My intent with the video was to create a piece that reflected the poignancy of the lyrics and the intensity of the music – while at the same time bringing conversation and question about perception.