Legss Lament the Life of a Hack in Their Cinematic Nightmare, ‘Hollywood’

Hot on the heels of ‘Hyde Park Coroner’, post-punk four-piece Legss are back with yet another darkly entrancing track, ‘Hollywood’. A meditation on the gut-wrenching strain of creativity, ‘Hollywood’ showcases the band’s signature mix of the mundane and the cerebral, weaving a tale of despair set among explosive guitars and twisted rhythms.

Leggs are not interested in coming up with catchy hooks or pleasant melodies; their music is purposefully angular, seemingly ready to jump up at the listener and box their ears. Opening with a duskily strumming guitar and a pulsating bass, ‘Hollywood’ pulls us into their tottering world full of shifting rhythms and elusive tones.

Here, creativity is not good for its own sake, but rather something that can be exploited for “ten pence for a word” and “people per hour”. Preacher-like spoken world morphs into a tentative croon, driven by chords reminiscent of The Animals’ ‘House of the Rising Sun’, before unleashing into a full-on howling breakdown that will send shivers down the spine.

 

A short film accompanies the track in lieu of a music video. Directed by The Reids and executively produced by Mura Masa, it is everything David Fincher’s ‘Mank’ wishes it could be. According to the video description, it trails “an aspiring screenwriter […] sent to a remote location to write a screenplay for a film studio”, unfolding like a Kafkaesque nightmare and dragging both the protagonist and the viewer “into a feverish world of malady and disquiet”. Somnambulant and deeply atmospheric, it is the perfect visual accompaniment to the music, as well as an arresting piece of art in its own right.

 

Legss have the uncanny ability to construct a whole world within the length of a single track; a world that is a darker reflection of our own existence, uncompromising in its brutal honesty and stark realisations. Horrifying, yet transfixing, it’s impossible to turn away from its nightmarish lustre, just as it is impossible to stop consuming the dubious offerings of Hollywood.

 

 

Liza Kupreeva

@lizakupreeva

Image: ‘Hollywood’ Legss Official Single Artwork