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You Have To Watch This Video For Lafawndah's Eerie Ace Of Base Cover

The Egyptian-Iranian artist teams up with 4REAL’s Analisa Teachworth for a short film set in Mexico City.

June 09, 2016

GEN F alum Lafawndah has released a cover of Swedish pop group Ace of Base's 1992 hit "All That She Wants," in a video collaboration with artist Analisa Teachworth of digital agency 4REAL. A carefree song with an ambiguous message, "All That She Wants" seems to tell the story of a woman unbound by relationships, who makes her way from person to person with no qualms: Just laying on the beach and having fun/ She's going to get you. Lafawndah delves into the original track's lyrical edge, capitalizing on its implicitly eerie aura. Musically, her take is guided by dub rhythms, but propelled forward by slinky, undulating percussion and hypnotic, room-filling vocals — listening, I was completely immersed, swallowed up by the environment that she creates.

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The video, directed by Teachworth and starring actor Masum Rioja, follows a young woman as she drifts from lover to lover against the brilliantly lit backdrop of Mexico City. From rivers to arcades to rooftops, she is physically present but mentally elsewhere. Private and public lives are entwined with the use of unnerving angles and sharp shots of liminal spaces, like staircases or empty rooms. Soundtracked by "All That She Wants" and an array of woozy, ambient Lafawndah instrumentals, the film is a reminder that nothing in life is a constant, except for oneself.