British Duo TENDER Debut Video for New Single “Bottled Up” (premiere)

British duo TENDER are following up their debut Modern Addiction with the release of two new singles “Can’t Show My Face” and “Bottled Up”, the later of which PopMatters is premiering the new video for today.

The song opens with warm rushes of synths that suddenly surge, before the curtain is pulled away to reveal a grooving bass line and singer James Cullen’s androgynous falsetto. Incorporating everything from indie to art rock to 1960s baroque pop, bandmate Dan Cobb weaves strands of shimmering guitars, crisp percussion, and swelling synths that curl around the smooth, multi-layered harmonies.

Taken from the band‘s forthcoming new album Fear of Falling Asleep, “Bottled Up” is a sophisticated examination of the flawed character traits that we all possess but try not to let get the better of us, as the band explains.

”We don’t always know how we are going feel when we wake up, sometimes it’s a struggle to face the world. It’s OK not to feel your best self and it’s OK to keep it to yourself and not have to know why you feel the way you do. It’s accepting the negative and learning to live with it as just another part of you.”

The video illustrates this idea beautifully as the camera tracks above two bedrooms where separate characters are struggling with suffocating anxiety presumably in the moments after waking up. It’s a simple yet supremely powerful piece of film making that cleverly captures the song’s starkly affecting message.

New album Fear of Falling Asleep is due 18 January 2019 via Partisan Records.