There’s a scene in Ted Demme’s uneven-but-unjustly ignored Beautiful Girls in which one of the movie’s many small-town sad sacks pulls a dumb stunt in a vain attempt to prove he’s over the girl that broke his heart, all while the Afghan Whigs perform a stunningly ragged cover of Frederick Knight’s Marlena Shaw-covered “Be for Real.” It’s kind of an offhand moment in the movie, one chiefly distinguished by the Whigs’ performance (and some fine acting), but like much of the rest of the film, it neatly encapsulates how hard it can be to break from the past — and the bittersweet comfort of falling into old patterns and relationships, even when we know they’ve started bringing out the worst in us.
Director Chris Cucinotto is no Ted Demme, but his clip for We Were Astronauts‘ “Doree” pulls from the same well as that scene, trading in some of the same small-town scenery and bruised nostalgia to produce a video that perfectly echoes the lyrics’ lost-love lament. It all adds up to a solid calling card for the band’s upcoming EP Artificial Light, due in September. Take a look below, and keep up with We Were Astronauts here.
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