Work Drugs, “Beyond Greenpoint”

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Philadelphia’s yacht rock band, Work Drugs released a sex-laden, sax dominated smooth soft rock jam “Beyond Greenpoint” with a music video from Italian artist Marco Scago. The band points out that they’re calling out trust funded Brooklynites and their bubbled extravagance, though it's not overwhelming within the song. The message that accompanies “Beyond Greenpoint” and its music video is pretty heavy handed in its criticisms and assumptions and seems almost as exaggerated as Work Drugs’ musical style in general. The music video is accompanied by this: “There is more to life than the hipstamatic camera, the microblog, the bearish trust fund, the genetically perfected dog, the $7 coffee, or even the cherished fixed gear bike.” To be fair, they're right.

Still, for a song that is about the real world, Work Drugs makes it pretty glossy. “Beyond Greenpoint,” however, finds its step as the song builds past guest musician Maxfield Gast’s sax to bigger vocal swells and expanded lyricism in a full, though relaxed climax. Scago’s video pushes the theme further pitting video of the city, bougie extravagance and explosions and fire together to emphasize the separation of fine living and sorrow and fear that exists in the world. Stylistically, the video is a mash up of vintage cuts, soft colors and faded black and white glory that seem appropriate for the track's dated aesthetic. The two pair well, even if it seems like Work Drugs hasn’t met the working class folk of Greenpoint. Then again, they might agree with one another. Kurwa, who knows.