Exclusive Video Premiere: ‘Love Songs for Robots,’ Patrick Watson

In his largely instrumental, piano-based track “Love Songs for Robots,” musician Patrick Watson explores the obvious notions of love, albeit through a series of unique metaphors. He delicately sings, “Breaking down / Your days are getting longer … Watch over you, you watch and fall down / Your nuts and bolts are all over the ground / You get up…” between robust bursts of cinematic keys and chimes, interspersed with soft electric guitar and subtle electronics. The video for the song, which we are pleased to debut below, exacerbates the titular idea, featuring two dancers dressed in circus-appropriate costumes.

“‘Love Songs for Robots’ is our attempt to create the sort of film Martians might make for humans, if those Martians had only observed us from afar,” the video’s directors Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski say.

The video marks the fourth collaboration between Watson and the Cannes Film Festival award winners and Oscar-nominated directors, who also wrote and directed Madame Tutli-Putli and Higgelty-Piggelty Pop!. For this project, the directors took inspiration from sculptures and ballets by the German avant-garde artist Oskar Schlemmer. Fittingly, the opening credits of the video are given in German, reading “liebeslieder für roboter, eine robot balladia im geiste der oskar schlemmer,” which translates to “love songs for robots, a robot ballet in the spirit of oskar schlemmer.”

Following the credits, viewers watch the dancers-dressed-as-robots explore the tribulations of relationships without ever physically touching each other. We won’t give any spoilers, but the music video is more like an artistic short film that should be watched until the very end.

PATRICK WATSON’S FIFTH STUDIO ALBUM LOVE SONGS FOR ROBOTS WAS RELEASED IN MAY 2015. FOR MORE ON THE MUSICIAN, VISIT HIS WEBSITE.