When life doesn’t go your way, it’s easy to see yourself as the one that needs rescuing. But sometimes, the only one who can rescue you is yourself. And even then, in the process of doing that, you may just find that, as much as you hate to admit it, you just might be to blame yourself…at least a little.
These revelations are made quite literal in the video for “Villain 2.0,” the latest single from Long Island-born, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Leanne Gallati. The clip (which premieres right here on The Arts STL today; check it out below) shows Gallati as a series of damsels in distress—tied to the train tracks, trapped in a castle tower, fleeing from a raygun-toting alien. She slowly rescues herself from each of the (literally!) moustache-twirling villains before finally turning the tables on them in the video’s epic climax in a way that’s more punitive than heroic. Director Megan Roe took a delightfully lo-fi approach to the video: Gallati is filmed so that she looks like she leapt out of a staticky VHS tape, then superimposed over the much sharper backgrounds as if it were a Zoom call background, with an obvious greenscreen halo around Gallati while parts of her occasionally cut in and out.
The Arts STL is proud to present the video for “Villain 2.0,” which you can watch right here:
The video has exactly the kind of premise that could come off as hammy if you played it straight, but the lo-fi aesthetic keeps things loose and lighthearted. This works because the song itself also plays with a similar dichotomy. Gallati’s lyrics chase after profound topics—“Is this what getting older is/ Realizing you might be wrong?” she sings in the chorus. “And no one’s there to save you so you better save yourself.” Then, as the chorus builds to its crescendo, Gallati sings her suckerpunch of an ending: “All this damn time, you thought you knew/ You thought you were the princess/ But you’re the villain too.” And yet, for as serious as the lyrics are, the music isn’t overly ponderous or precious about it: drummer Austin Deyo plays a peppy, shuffling beat, guitarist Josh Santiago plucks out clear, ringing notes that have a bit of Mark Knopfler in them, and bassist Eric Wharton settles into a chug-chugga rhythm after each chorus that sounds like the train bearing down on our damsel.
All of this is in support of Gallati’s voice, a powerful instrument honed when she studied musical theater at Rider University in New Jersey. Gallati also spent a few years as lead singer of Cosmonaut Radio, a throwback band heavily influenced by funk, mid-century blues, and early R&B. Since going solo in 2022, Gallati has dropped ten singles that blend that R&B sound with more an indie feel as well as more modern-sounding bands that work in that same milieu, specifically citing Lake Street Dive, Lawrence, and Rubblebucket as inspirations for her current direction. Much like the work of those bands, “Villain 2.0” is a song that’s hard to categorize—it’s maybe a little too classicist for indie rock, a little too idiosyncratic for pop. But who cares what you call it? Just know that it’s powerfully sung, thoughtfully written, and most definitely worth a listen.
“Villain 2.0” is the first taste of Gallati’s first larger solo project: her debut solo EP, Not Your Type, will include the song as well as well as three others when it drops on September 19. | Jason Green
