Show Boy – ‘Heart Is An Apple’ – London outfit shine with 80’s indebted pop gem

Show Boy unveil stop-motion music video for new release ‘Heart Is An Apple’.

The advent of CGI technology should have rendered stop motion techniques obsolete, yet the animation style endures, despite the painstaking and tedious procedures required to produce even a few seconds of footage. But it is this very handmade quality that gives the technique such appeal to filmmakers. My Heart Is An Apple, the latest single from London’s genre-bending glam rockers Show Boy, comes replete with a subtly emotive stop motion video. Much like the band’s mining of the more bombastic side of 80’s music in Prince and Bon Jovi, the quartet also seem eager to recall the golden age of music video, where MTV could make or break careers. Whereas record labels threw millions of dollars at ever more ludicrous and ambitious promotional clips, Show Boy make up for a lack of big budget with a keen sense of artistry and perhaps most importantly, a deft sense of humour. Focusing on the plight of two figures on an ostensibly arctic tundra, the video follows the pair as they discover such objects as a Tunnocks caramel bar wrapper, Zippo lighter and other paraphernalia before one of them suffers horrifying and grizzly end at the hands of the band’s keyboardist.

Having already produced a show-stopping video for debut single Empress, a neon and glitter filled explosion of colour that remains spectacular despite clearly being filmed in someone’s garage, My Heart Is An Apple is nothing short of a mini masterpiece.

Musically, the track is the most understated Show Boy have produced thus far, avoiding the desire to fall back on those stadium rock choruses and instead recalling the relative minimalism of Prince’s When Doves Cry. It’s a delicious slice of 80’s indebted pop, resplendent with frontman Jovis Lane’s glorious falsetto and sumptuous layered harmonies. Sit back, watch the video and fall in love with Show Boy.