Alternative rockers Affidavit have released their debut track “The Truth”, along with a music video. The Paris four piece of Dory-Loup Venta (vocals), Ariel Benitah (guitar), Ilan Benitah (bass), and Loïc Fouquet (drums), also will have an EP on the way this year. If “The Truth” is anything to go by, it’ll be an adventure!
If you’re a fan of unsettling sci-fi, you’ll probably enjoy the music video for “The Truth”, which takes us into a creepy cornfield setting, where a skateboarder is seemingly interfered with by aliens/unseen creatures. I’ve seen enough movies to know that cornfields are just not a place that you want to be at night, but it seems Affidavit didn’t get that memo. We watch as Dory-Loup skates and sings in the dark, with his skateboard soon ripped away by unseen cornfield forces (complete with sparks). He’s later floating in the air, while his friends in the Affidavit van attempt to track him down. Do they find him? Do the aliens abduct him? You’ll have to watch the video to find out.
Video enthrallment aside, from first listen “The Truth” could be understood as a straightforward piece of emo rock about the painful truth, and the need to face it to benefit everyone. But there’s a lot more going on here that deserves attention. The track begins with fat fuzzy riffs, a driving pace, and broad choruses that are easy to enjoy. Around the 1:20 mark, Ilan’s bass sound shows up noticeably, where Dory-Loup’s layered vocals take a more tender stance of expressing the value of truth, as opposed to the more forceful approach earlier in the track, and I appreciate this compassionate softening which seems to give the lyrics more authenticity.
“There’s a difference between optimistic and burying your head in the sand”
I’m also a huge fan of the sideways lean into song sections which don’t really fit in ‘chorus’ or ‘verse’, seeming like a dreamy extension of the former, despite anticipating that knowing someone who’s so bluntly honest is bad news. The structure of the song as it shifts along with the changing of mind, questioning, and growing assertion is just brilliant.
A stand-out to me is the bridge, which keeps building and building, but with uneasy and tentative progression instead of a straight climb, which is SO appealing to my ears. And just when you think Affidavit have hit a peak, they kick it up even further. It feels like with “The Truth”, Affidavit have hit a sweet spot between the comfort and catchiness of repeated lyrics/choruses AND musical unpredictability that makes for a really great song.
Just as innocently as it began, “The Truth” is soon over, with the Affidavit-mobile speeding off into the darkness. Endearing, genuine, playful, innovative, and talented? Yep, I’m into this. See what you think, being sure to stay for the whole track.
