Azalia Snail Ponders Impending Doom with Her “Don’t Get Too Close To Me” Video Premiere

Words are certainly not overrated, but as Azalia Snail demonstrates, they’re not always as necessary as they seem to be. You can catch a glimpse of that with her brand new music video for “Don’t Get Too Close To Me.” The release of the video comes ahead of her new album POWERLOVER, due out on April 5th via Cloud Recordings. “Don’t Get Too Close To Me” and the rest of POWERLOVER are completely instrumental affairs, with Snail allowing her avant-garde approach to her music to do all of the talking.

The accompanying clip is both humorous and illustrative of a larger point she is trying to make with both the song and the album as a whole. “Don’t Get Too Close To Me” carries forward the message of the album’s previous single, “Zap You of That Hate.” The title pretty much sums up the message behind the song: if she had a magic wand, she would use it to “zap you of that hate.”

Explaining more about the song and the video, Snail states:

“‘Don’t Get Too Close To Me’ is an instrumental that conveys the feeling of the ‘impending doom’ of living in a world gone topsy-turvy, initially by a worldwide pandemic, and which continues on as humans must deal with the threat of potentially alienating factors such as AI, the increasingly competitive nature of modern society, and useless and violent man-made wars, not to mention the looming climate war.

“In the video, the isolated couple are forced to acknowledge that the world is becoming increasingly cold, both in climate and human relationships. The disco ball represents the joy and the live entertainment associations from a not-too-distant past, as it is passed from one person to the other and scrutinized. The couple considers the possibility of connecting, but in the end, decide to stay in their isolation, as it is too risky to do so. ‘Don’t Get Too Close To Me’ is the conclusion of the experiment.”

POWERLOVER is meant by Snail to be something of a tribute to Brian Eno and his knack for creating original, ambient soundscapes. Without having to say anything profound or high-minded, the album reflects Snail’s feelings about the state of the world. As a musician, she usually uses lyrics to express herself, but they didn’t feel necessary this time.

As work on the album developed and evolved, the instrumentals she was working on were enough for the messages she wanted to convey. Some of the more important themes include uneasiness, anxiety, intensity, and reservation. But as the album continues, more positive feelings develop, like hope, beauty, and resonance. It would only be an artist as unique and original as Azalia Snail to come up with an album that says so much without saying anything at all.

Track Listing:

1. Take Away His Power
2. Zap You of That Hate
3. Don’t Get Too Close To Me
4. Destroy It For No Reason
5. Trek Lite
6. Expert Outlier
7. Still Hanging On
8. Lovers Rising
9. Can’t Wait Til This is Through
10. Save Your Savior
11. Higher Hopes
12. It Becomes Clear To Them

Azalia Snail ‘Power Lover’ album artwork