After a successful launch of his new record TIME/SPACE with a #1 spot on the Singapore iTunes album charts and a viral reception to his first music video for I Only Tell The Truth, singer-songwriter/producer Charlie Lim has released his second official music video for Bitter, one of the album’s more popular tracks.
A collaboration with Australian visual artist Anita Lester, the video for Bitter adopts a gothic but childlike Burton-esque treatment that pairs with the complexity and lyrical depth that Charlie has worked into the song. Having ruminated on this track for over 3 years before its release, Bitter meditates on the paradox of finding the right person at the wrong time, and being perpetually displaced in reality:
“Pull me out of focus, keep me in the queue
I’m a tired lover wilting hours in the waiting room
Embrace the silence when there’s nothing left
You got no room for demons when you’re self-possessed”
“Why am I so bitter about you babe, I don’t understand
Was I trying to cash in the fantasy without the reality check
But I never wanted you to lie to yourself about happiness
When all you were was just a little lonely”
“I’ve been living with this song for some time now, so it’s nice to finally find a home for it in a visual sense,” says Charlie. “It’s quite a dense arrangement and it spans for a little over 6 minutes, so I wanted a simple but strong narrative –as if you were reading a children’s bedtime story.” Anita’s illustrations were perfect for the video; which shows life as both kind and tragic, beautiful and cruel, comical yet dark at the same time.
