Little is known about Lions Head, the collaborative project between singer-songwriter Ignacio and producer Philip. I watched the “band’s” debut single, “Begging,” gain a quick 100,000 listens on SoundCloud during its first few weeks online. Since its SoundCloud release in February, the hypnotically catchy “Begging” is now up to 210,000 listens, and counting.
Listen: “Begging” – Lions Head
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With great streaming success typically comes further backstory, but Lions Head have kept the bottleneck tight on their biography. After riding the debut high for a few months, Lions Head released a new single, “Firecracker,” in early June. The song’s chorus is just as catchy as Lions Head’s debut, but it doesn’t contain that same magically entrancing element that kept “Begging” on repeat for days at a time. That said, anything new from Lions Head is not only welcomed, but also guaranteed to be better than 75% of whatever anyone else is putting out.
Listen: “Firecracker” – Lions Head
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“Firecracker” is also feature on Atwood Magazine’s July 2015 Playlist.
This stands true for “Firecracker,” as well as for Lions Head’s debut music video for “Begging.” Released today (July 6, 2015) on Vimeo, “Begging” is more of a first-look at the artist than it is a storyline-based music video. The otherwise seldom-seen ‘man behind Lions Head’ – we know him now to be Ignacio – is given a full visual profile in this music video, which features various shots of a guitar-slung Ignacio singing “Begging” directly into the camera.
I love the ability to overlay a face — or in this case, a profile or facial outline — on various backgrounds (see the article’s cover photo), and “Begging” certainly offers a lot of that. The background imagery varies in color and in subject, but the theme seems to weigh heavily on nature, with forests and mountains playing prominent roles as backdrops for the video.
For all its fun video effects, “Begging” leaves us wanting a little bit more. The music video does not substantially contribute to the song; the only major feeling I got from watching “Begging,” that I did not originally get from the audio itself, was that of alienation. Ignacio is the only person we see in the music video, bolstering the song’s sense of forlorn isolation. However, without a storyline, this video gets lost. There is simply not enough there for it to be a standalone piece, or teach anything new about the song. If you want a great music video, check out NoMBe’s “California Girls,” Oh Wonder’s “Livewire,” or anything by Aerosmith in the late 1980s or 1990s (especially any videos featuring Alicia Silverstone).
Lions Head’s “Begging” music video is perfect for those looking to get a first glimpse at the ‘face behind the name’. It’s well worth the watch, and you may find that Ignacio is enough eye candy to give “Begging” a few more views. I’ll stick to streaming the audio alone for now, but it’s great to see a promising new act putting out new, quality material.
Watch: “Begging” – Lions Head
[vimeo = https://vimeo.com/132128212]
