Until today, I’d never heard the end of Madilyn Mei “What’s Going On?”. I’d heard the start and fallen in love with it months ago due to several very impressive fan-made videos on YouTube and Instagram.
The opening lyrics describe the realisation that the singer is an alien trying to pilot a rocket ship of human bone and skin. Or, at least, that’s what it feels like.
I am an alien
My rocket ship is human bone and skin
I’m something smaller staring out the skull
With a panel of wire and
Buttons I don’t understand
Spamming every one of them
So, does being human mean pretending to know
What’s going on?!
(Hello?)
What’s going on?!
(Hellooo? Fine!)
The official video to the second song off the album “A Thousand Songs About It All” uses various animation techniques, and while I like stop-motion, I’m not sure it’s as charming as some of the fan productions.
Of course, the official video needs to hold our attention for the full 5 minutes of the song, and until fandom took over and set expectations high, there may have been neither a plan nor the budget for an expensive animation for Mei.
Mei is touring with AJR, one of my all-time favourite “I found them on TikTok and now I’ve seen them live” bands, starting at Mountain View and reaching the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles for October.
