MUSIC

Baker Grace Is Over Her "Sad Summer"

The up-and-coming artist's latest video is a bright, multicolor experiment in introvert pop.

Darren Craig

"Sad Summer," the new music video from Baker Grace, shows that the singer is tired of summer, even in the heat of July.

The New Jersey native undercuts the saccharine sound and visuals of her latest release with deceptively impassive vocals, confessing her boredom with summer's oversaturated promise. The track itself alternates between a sparse, plunking bass line and lush, atmospheric synths, delineating a kind of easy groove that could fit any summer pop aesthetic. But Grace uses the pop sound as an ironic backdrop to insistent introversion. "I could be falling in love but baby I don't give a f**k," Grace sighs on the chorus. You can hear the lyrics as a push against forced public positivity as easily as a lament of summer vacation loneliness. She plays with summer's tedium and its potential, creating an electro-pop ode to being tired of socializing.

The video's visuals seize on that give-and-take, leaving no room for subtlety. Grace sits in the background of each shot, under an umbrella that's not protecting her from the rain, or she's lying down on manicured grass, upstaged by the antics of Tik Tok stars Dominic Tolliver, Kailey Maurer, and Kelianne. Grace is decked out in high-fashion getups from Margiela and Balenciaga and the like, but the video makes her the colorful aside to the social media stars' oblivious posing. It seems like an easy swipe at social media itself, a teenage old-soul pontificating about "Kids These Days" and their phones, but Grace's flexible voice and the song's irrepressible pop save "Sad Summer" from becoming preachy. The video's not fully satirical or regretful; instead, Grace reaches for both, flipping introversion into an infectious three minutes, a gratifying offering from an artist still sketching out her space.

Baker Grace - Sad Summer (Official Video)www.youtube.com