At an art gallery. In the shower. Between the sheets. Miguel finds plenty of places to get busy in his new short film, “WILDHEART Chapter 1: Find What You Love and Let It Kill You.” The 13-minute project stitches together videos for three songs – “…goingtohell,” “Coffee” and “NWA” – from the neo-soul singer’s acclaimed new LP, Wildheart.
“…goingtohell” finds Miguel romancing his blue-haired companion at an art exhibit. “Only you can save me / I’m a sinner,” he sings over fuzzy psych-rock guitars. Recent single “Coffee” (teased last month as a stand-alone clip) follows the romantic and sexual themes of the lyrics, as the couple spend an evening between the sheets. “Pillow talk turns into sweet dreams / Sweet dreams turns into coffee in the morning,” Miguel croons over the track’s billowing synths.
The film takes a tonal shift with the skeletal, brooding “NWA,” which finds Miguel strutting through the streets and rapper Kurupt delivering his come-ons from a slow-moving car. “Her skin so silky / Body from a movie like she plastered on a silk screen,” he rhymes.
Wildheart is Miguel’s long-awaited follow-up to 2012’s Kaleidoscope Dream, which featured his breakout, Grammy-winning smash “Adorn.” For the new album, the singer wanted to craft “an ode to love of self… [and] the ongoing infatuation with whatever you’re fucking into,” he recently told Rolling Stone.
“This time, it was like I finally want to have an identity as a tastemaker, as someone who’s ahead of the curve, someone who’s intellectual, someone who’s striving to push the boundaries, someone who’s ever-growing and evolving, someone who’s open-minded,” he said.
Last month, Miguel announced a run of North American tour dates, which kick off July 24th in Austin, Texas and run throughout early September.