Alexz Johnson dwells in dark spaces in the music video for “Take the Blame,” a beautifully cinematic and achingly visceral confrontation that forces us to reflect on our own actions and how we deal with life’s harder emotions and experiences.
Stream: “Take the Blame” – Alexz Johnson
In the end, we must take responsibility and accountability for our choices, in life and in our relationships. Blame can feel like you’re drowning underwater – like you can’t breathe.
Alexz Johnson’s latest release is so much more than a music video; it’s an intimate and emotional inner reckoning to which all can relate.
Because we’re all guilty of looking to others to solve our problems; we’re all guilty of projecting the weight of our world onto those closest to us; of making bigger issues out of smaller issues, and fighting fire with fire. We’re all guilty of pushing the blame, rather than taking it for ourselves, and in her breathtaking new music video, Johnson sheds light on this hard-to-face facet of our imperfect human condition. Alexz Johnson dwells in dark spaces in “Take the Blame,” a beautifully cinematic and achingly visceral confrontation that forces us to reflect on our own actions and how we deal with life’s harder emotions and experiences.
I’ve been hungry
Nothing feeds me
I’ve been lonely
No one sees me
You seem to be good seems like nothing is wrong
I keep it together but I can’t move on
I picked up the pages
I’ve got to change this
I’ve got friends who say they love me
Ain’t seem them in ages
I know I’d feel fine if you weren’t on my mind
I miss you so bad guess I’m part of the crime
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering the Alastair Sinclair-directed music video for “Take the Blame,” the soul-stirring eighth track off Alexz Johnson’s newly-released fifth studio album, Seasons (independently out now). Billed as a record of renewal, healing, and rediscovery, Seasons is a powerfully moving and mature collection of songs dealing with the raw facts of life – death; loss; birth; growth; change. Seismic in scope yet intimate by nature, the record’s ten songs finds Johnson – the singer/songwriter and actress, whose talents extend far beyond her most famous roles, in the CTV television series Instant Star and the Disney Channel series So Weird – creating something beautiful out of her own hardship whilst at the same time finding meaning in the aspects of existence that so often seem meaningless.
That includes such moving songs as “Hurt Me,” a heartrending outpouring of acceptance and unconditional love that welcomes pain as an essential part of life; “Borderline,” a song of comfort, solace, and support that acts as a musical outstretched hand to anyone in distress; and “Take the Blame,” a brutally honest and deeply introspective exploration on how we deal with our own tough times, and the ways in which we mistreat those closest to us. Johnson comes to a painful, poignant climax in a chorus that aches from the inside out:
This ain’t looking good
I misunderstood
There would be less pain if only you would take the blame
You stay unaware
Act like you don’t care
There would be less pain if only you would take the blame
“‘Take the Blame’ is what we all do in relationships – which is that we want the person that we love to take the blame and bear the weight of everything that’s wrong with us and with the world,” Johnson tells Atwood Magazine. “I wanted the music video to emote the feeling of blame. The ridiculousness, the weight of it, the darkness of it, the depth of it… It’s just a very visceral video that I’m hoping emotes that feeling.”
“The big, black, ridiculous dress that I had custom-made is blame itself, and underwater I am freeing myself from the weight of the persona my character is carrying in the video. The characters we play can also often be ridiculous. In the end, it’s not about anybody else… It’s not about blaming anyone… In the end, we must take responsibility and accountability for our choices, in life and in our relationships. Blame can feel like you’re drowning underwater – like you can’t breathe.”
Johnson’s music video, directed by cinematographer Alastair Sinclair and starring herself and Dan Guiry, highlights literal that darkness within us and all those ways in which it manifests, especially in moments of hardship, tension, and pain. “I am the tin man; this heart it ain’t beating,” she confesses in the song’s second verse; we watch as she and Guiry sit opposite a table from one another, the heat between them rising to a fever pitch that ultimately results in Johnson falling into a pool of pitch-black, watery depths.
I am the tin man
This heart it ain’t beating
See I’d be nervous to tell ya
But you’re always leaving
I think it’s ok when I shout it out loud
A day without shouting I think you’d be proud
This ain’t looking good
I misunderstood
There would be less pain if only you would take the blame
You stay unaware
Act like you don’t care
There would be less pain if only you would take the blame
The water is a space of cathartic release, where those inner forces are unleashed outward and we find ourselves fighting for our very survival. If we let the water consume us, then we’ll drown in it; likewise, if we let our blame consume us, we’ll have nothing (and no one) left – including ourselves. By coming back up to the surface and shedding that black dress, Johnson is rejecting that facet of our nature that too easily fall back on when times get tough. She is owning her emotions, rather than letting her emotions own her.
In other words, she becomes the one who takes the blame.
There would be less pain if only you would take the blame…
While we may not readily admit it, Alexz Johnson’s music video is universally relatable, depicting something we’re all guilty of doing at some point in our lives, and with our loved ones.
Watch the music video for “Take the Blame” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and let Alexz Johnson’s performance – her words, and her actions – lead you down a path of self-reflection. How have we hurt the ones we loved, by shifting our burdens on to them? How can we do right by ourselves and our loved ones, and how can we do better not just in this moment, but for the rest of our lives?
A warm and wondrous embrace of the circle of life, Seasons is an impassioned and unfiltered record of raw humanity and human connection. Alexz Johnson’s fifth album holds nothing back as she explores the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, and in “Take the Blame” we watch as she challenges our natural instincts and urges herself (and everyone else) to be better.
We made our bed and slept in it
We’re both adults so we should swim in it
But how do I move on?
Tell me how do I move on
This ain’t looking good
I misunderstood
There would be less pain if only you would take the blame
You stay unaware
Act like you don’t care
There would be less pain if only you would take the blame
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:: stream/purchase Seasons here ::
:: connect with Alexz Johnson here ::
Stream: “Take the Blame” – Alexz Johnson
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