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Live Review: Cuckoolander ‘Mother Nature’ (Official Video)

30 September 2015 | 4:17 pm | Katie Rowley

Have you ever thought about pet snails and a hot pant-suit in the same breath? Neither had we, until CUCKOOLANDER’s video for her new single, Mother Nature

Have you ever thought about pet snails and a hot pant-suit in the same breath? Neither had we, until we caught a glimpse of CUCKOOLANDER’s video for her new single, ‘Mother Nature’, which illustrates the UK artist to be quite the force of nature herself.

Charli XCX’s ex-bassist is striking out on her own, and has clearly put in a lot of work to make sure her visuals bring added substance to her undoubted style.

CUCKOOLANDER, aka Holly Hardy, explains that “with the video we wanted to bring back elements of educational videos you would watch at school mixed with retro TV shows like Blue Peter”.

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If you don’t know what Blue Peter is, you clearly haven’t spent any time in the UK. Blue Peter was, and arguably still is, the best thing about the UK. Along with Ray Winstone, jam scones and never being more than about 45 minutes from the seaside.

In the run up to the release of her new single, Cuckoolander has been dropping a few clues as to her musical muses on her Facebook page. She referenced Talking Heads’ ‘This Must Be The Place’, the visuals for which tap into the same home video collage style that we see in the Dimitri Tikovoï-directed clip for ‘Mother Nature’; she’s also suggested listening to ‘Genius of Love’ by Tom Tom Club, which was a side project of Chris Fantz and Tina Weymouth who were the husband-and-wife drummer and bass player of, none other than, Talking Heads. On the opening to ‘Mother Nature’, there’s certainly a similar punchy drum and guitar mêlée that we recognise from Talking Heads’ classics. Hardy seems to be channelling David Byrne vocally, lyrically and visually.

Simple harmonies and accessible lyrics always work well, especially when contrasted with Hardy’s idiosyncrasies in the video – namely, a flash of perfect white hair tucked amongst the rest of her coif, her pair of pet snails that steal the limelight, and her coy grin that lets you know she knows something we know she knows that we don’t know. You know?

Having supported The Libertines, collaborated with Rostam Batmanlij from Vampie Weekend on her debut album, recently played a Red Bull Studios showcase with Lionbabe and her former boss, and with rave reviews coming in from all corners of Pop-dom, cloud cuckoo land must be becoming something of a reality for Hardy.

Words by Katie Rowley

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