Out actor Ezra Miller (Justice League, Fantastic Beasts) and his band, Sons of an Illustrious Father, have taken the Pussycat Dolls’ 2005 hit, “Don’t Cha,” and reimagined the R&B bop into a track of undeniable queerness.
As the story goes, the three band members were on tour, and headed out to see what Nashville had to offer in terms of nightlife. The group found a happening queer dance club that was apparently “the” place to be.
“It was clearly the best thing happening in town that night and was therefore being infiltrated by ostensibly hetero couples, who were sort of uncomfortably ogling the frolicking queers – including us – in a way that belied their envy and lust,” band member Lilah Larson told AnotherManMag.
“The original song came on and Ezra and I in a typical moment of psychic connection looked at each other and agreed that the track, sung from our perspective, would perfectly encapsulate this common experience,” she explained.
So, with the help of director Rafe Scobey-Thal and choreographer Bobbie Jene Smith, the threesome donned black leotards, and shot the music video in an abandoned warehouse.
The new “Don’t Cha” is a slowed-down, time-warped version of the song, much darker than the original with a touch of something sinister.
Paper Magazine praised the track’s “harmonies that wail like a chorus of tortured souls,” adding that the whole affair has a “dark carnival aura” about it.
In reinventing the song, Larson says the band looked back at the original and found it to be “very destructive, dated, distinctly heterosexual male perspective on women and discourses of desire.” This new version is meant to “ridicule and invert that mentality, while also absolutely celebrating the genuine pleasure possible in being an object of desire.”
Miller tells AMM that his favorite part of the new track what he dubbed “the descending catatonic scale” that Larson came up with for the bridge.
“This grating and harsh aspect of the cover’s composition was another idea we had somehow agreed upon and solidified before ever even playing the song,” Miller shared. “Again, to us, this all seemed like the obvious thing to do… but, like, obvious in a way that was kinda hot. But, like, hot in a way that was kinda gross. But, like, gross in a way that was kinda irresistible.”
The music video is an animal all unto itself. At first, I didn’t know what to think.
I still don’t – but I watched it to the end.
Let us know in the comments what you think of music video and/or track. Do you think this is sexy? Or unsettling?
Thinking outside the box is nothing new for Miller. In case you missed it, here’s his arrival on the red carpet for this year’s Met Gala in New York City”
https://twitter.com/justfionalol/status/1125670207970787328
Sexy? Not in my opinion.
And I’m thankful Japanese music exists 🙂
OMFG… Awful train wreck. Opportunity squandered.
Ugh. I’ll take the original, thank you.