The perfect visuals from Flatland Cavalry match the reminiscent love song’s lyrics.
“Last American Summer” has been my addiction since its release in late June. Ironically with the title pointing to summer, it has been the song of the summer.
Before the song’s release, frontman Cleto Cordero gave insight into how the song came to be:
“A few years ago, I was sitting hanging out in Oklahoma because we weren’t allowed to tour for obvious reasons, and I was sitting in my mother-in-law’s backyard where I was hanging out and I made a little garden and stuff.
And I was sitting there chilling in a little chair and kind of the words floated right above the garden. It said ‘Last American Summer’ and I was like man, that sounds like a song title.
And rather than writing an apocalyptic song about the last American summer, we wrote a little love story instead, and I hope it resonates to this time of year and falling in love and good ol’ America.”
The song’s lyrics pose this message perfectly, and it was followed up with a music video bringing phenomenal visuals to the table.
Directed by Adam Paul Stone, the story starts with a man looking under his bed and finding a box of old knickknacks, which hold many memories from his pre-teen and teenage years.
As he relives these flashbacks of falling in love with a girl and the memories they shared throughout the summers when school was out and you could get into some small-town trouble.
As Cleto sings the lyrics around a campfire, the flashbacks move to high school years, thinking of departing for college. How spending those nights together serves as the couple’s “Last American Summer.”
I often think that music videos can highlight or hinder the song’s meaning, and this highlights the lyrics that Cleto wrote perfectly.
Flatland does not miss.
Check it out.
