Watch: North Highlands - "Fre$ca"

Well, this is a bit embarrassing. Last year, I began my love affair with Brooklyn quintet North Highlands and their debut album Wild One was a definitely favorite. Since that first concert when I met them, I've followed their comings and goings pretty closely and yet, somehow I missed that they released a brand new video about two-ish months ago. Whoops. Worse still, the video was for my one of my favorite tracks off of Wild One "Fre$ca".

The fact that I love "Fre$ca" might seem a little farfetched to anyone who loves North Highlands. It has none of the bands' established draw. The dance-able folk-inspired chamber pop is stripped entirely from it. Instead it's a sparse track that serves pretty much to highlight frontwoman Brenda Malvini's ethereal coo. And maybe that's why I like it. Because it's not really anything like the band while still feeling very much in character. While the band does it's darnedest and succeeds at placing Malvini's delicate vocals at the forefront, "Fre$ca" doesn't require the pulling of any punches performance-wise. Malvini's front and center throughout as the only real focus and it works.

The video for the track is actually a bit of stop-motion animation by Laila Lott and Alicia Millar featuring the exploits of a willy, hungry fox-like beast on a deserted volcanic island - a magical place where donuts grow from flowers and the aforementioned volcano turns out to be filled with icing. He travels around the island collecting foodstuffs from the plants, placing them in his little fanny-pack pouch at the front of his pants before he realizing none of the pastries are iced like the donut he saw and couldn't reach. Which sets forth a sequence of events that cause the volcano to blow and overrun the majority of the island with it's gooey frosting lava. It's a rather cute video with a knowing wink to the band's own donut infatuation. Just the thing to accompany the slowest track in North Highlands' rep.

Watch the video for "Fre$ca" and also, you can now pre-order North Highlands brilliant debut album on vinyl. Out officially on November 27th.