NN Music Video of the Week: “I Want It Faster” by Alicia Blue
"There's a killer, a killer, hooked on me/There's a finger, a trigger, won't let me be/There's a pressure, decidin' how to be true/But, how can you be when the killer is you?." folk-pop siren Alicia Blue contemplates on her new single, "I Want It Faster," asking some tough questions and laying out an interior dilemma that's all too familiar: the urge to act. Now. Sooner. Faster. Even though it might not yet be the right time. It's the anatomy of self sabotage. The third single from the Los-Angeles-to-Nashville transplant's forthcoming EP, Inner Child Work PT. 2 (out January 20 via Magnetic Moon), which caused Rocking Magpie to recently observe, "Blue could easily go the pop singer route—she has the voice for it and effortlessly writes sweet melodies," features a stylish video, which was shot and directed by Alicia herself. We’ve designated Alicia’s new clip as our NN Music Video of the Week.
"I Want It Faster" underscores her ability to write disarmingly honest odes to battling the beasts that lurk inside our heads. If this were a horror film, Alicia Blue can confirm the unsettling news: the call is definitely coming from inside the house. But, there's also some positivity in knowing that this struggle is a perfectly normal part of the human experience.
"It's the critical voice within, sharpening our existence and purpose, but then also cutting them, too," she confides. "It's double-edged. Only one who has mastered life has mastered this."
In other words, only Buddha himself is spared from this particular quandary. Alicia, meanwhile, recommends making peace with our pushy instincts by trying to better understand where our motivations come from and, perhaps, realizing that sometimes our minds are lying to us. "What does it mean that I am all of these things?" she muses in "I Want It Faster," deciding in the end that we must learn to merge all the different aspects of ourselves—the good, the bad, and the 'in a hurry'—and have some compassion when self loathing arises.
"Compassion for that moment usually starts to dissolve those different parts of us... Or integrates them in a healthier way," she says. "Making peace is the only option."
"I Want It Faster" is Alicia's most rocking single yet and the latest installment in a creative exploration that's built something toothier from the more hushed folk of 2020's gorgeous Bravebird, a turn that's caused American Songwriter to proclaim, "She’s stunning in her transformation from a dreaming poet to a living artist, and in the short pocket of time since Bravebird." Working with former Cage the Elephant guitarist Lincoln Parish in the producer's chair has brought forward aspects of Alicia Blue's musical personality that needed to flourish. Collaborating suits her.
"I wrote this with the great Lera Lynn," she explains. "She had the riff, which echoed my concept. I’d had a poem, and she pretty much gave my lyrics a turn on their head so that they would punch straight through to the darker places. To the gut. I never really knew how this song would sound in the end, but I think Lera did."
The new video for "I Want It Faster" marks Alicia's fourth self-directed clip made on her iPhone, and in between performance shots, the footage she's compiled brilliantly reflects the themes in the song: a train ploughs forward, but the tilted horizon makes its trajectory seem unruly; herded deer scurry around, forced to move by something unseen.
"It’s real life," she says of her latest iPhone art. "Every moment of the video that wasn’t shot in the studio was an organic accumulation of regular moments I found valuable. They weren’t shot for the video. They were shot over a period of months simply because I liked them. Because I found something beautiful that day and had to keep it. I walk in Shelby Park every morning. I see those deer everyday and I love them, of course—the innocence, and yes, sometimes naïve nature in them, always amazes me. That same nature I find in myself too, and that also amazes me."
“I Want It Faster” arrives on the heels of "Best Hands" and “Young,” the latter of which features John Paul White of The Civil Wars who also co-wrote the track, collectively giving preview to the upcoming second half of Inner Child Work.
Listen to “I Want It Faster” on: Spotify