Alt-pop songwriter Ellie Bleach is back with nostalgic visuals for new single ‘Leave Me Alone’. The song is an emphatic statement of female independence in the tradition of Fiona Apple or Lily Allen. Matt Wilkinson of Beats1 praised the single on its release, describing it as “if Goat Girl were singing a Lily Allen song.”
The video serves as a fitting companion to the single as well as a strong indication of Ellie Bleach’s aesthetic. Bleach says that the video was inspired by “awkward family photos and 90s audition reels, as well as subverting the pop video trend of female solidarity and girl gangs. For example, Dua Lipa’s New Rules or Janelle Monae’s Pink into something more awkward and less Hollywood.”
Although Ellie Bleach admits that “the general narrative is me moping about wallowing and a team of hype girls trying to half-heartedly comfort me”, ‘Leave Me Alone’ is distinctly contemporary. It’s no surprise that she’s winning influential admirers when deadpan lyrics such as ‘thank god being sad is cool’ and ‘I can’t even check my phone without finding pictures of you’ ensure that the single is located within the milieu of 21st century life.
Watch the video below: