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First Watch: Lord Huron, 'Time To Run'

Courtesy of the artist

For the L.A. band Lord Huron, there's far more to music than merely playing sweetly summery, rhythmically inventive pop. There's also an air of mystery: a desire to tell stories, play with identities and craft visuals to complement its sounds. The bouncy "Time to Run" is a tremendously ingratiating song, but the band's video piles on new dimensions to make it that much richer.

Presented as an old-fashioned Technicolor Western, complete with opening credits — and purporting to adapt a made-up book by the nonexistent author George Ranger Johnson, for whom the band went so far as to build a website — the video for "Time to Run" allows Lord Huron's members to polish their acting chops while giving their song a visual stamp. It wouldn't be worth much if the song weren't as appealing as it is, but as a package, it's hard to exist as catnip for cinephiles and foot-tappers alike.

Here's Lord Huron frontman Ben Schneider on the video. As you can see, Schneider is nothing if not committed to the high-concept narrative he's created:

"A tragic tale of the foolish things a man might find himself doing for a woman, and the consequences that foolishness may bring upon him and those around him. It's a tale as old as time — one which has and will be repeated endlessly. We tried to be as true as possible to George Ranger Johnson's book.

"The video was helmed by L.A.-based director Arms Race, from a concept we developed in tandem. It was shot during one intensely hot marathon day in the Mojave Desert, and an additional scene filmed that night in Los Angeles. Cinematography was handled by Garret Curtis, and Benjamin Dohrmann edited. Sure hope you enjoy it."

"Time to Run" is from Lord Huron's new album, Lonesome Dreams, which comes out Oct. 9.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)