Sharon Van Etten’s “Your Love Is Killing Me” Gets a Simple Yet Stunning Music Video
Still from YouTube
Sharon Van Etten’s “Your Love Is Killing Me” is one of the year’s best songs, off one of the year’s best albums. Aptly described as a “pocket epic,” the track has Van Etten’s voice simmer and simmer until it reaches a low boil, her anger and heartbreak exposed over a rising tide of organ, piano, and guitar. It’s a straightforward but wrenching tune, and the music video, by Sean Durkin, does its raw beauty justice.
Durkin, who helmed the masterful Martha Marcy May Marlene, doesn’t indulge here—the video comprises only a handful of shots, with a mere two cuts in the first three minutes. This simple approach allows us to feel the sweep of the song, the long takes’ sustained momentum in perfect synchrony with Van Etten’s unceasing vocal crescendo. The girl in the video, who has something of a trick up her sleeve, may seem familiar—it’s Carla Juri, star of Germany’s gross-out hit film Wetlands.