MV Analysis: Back To Friends (Sombr)

 BACK TO FRIENDS

- Sombr -

Release date: April 3, 2025

Duration: 3:19 (3 minutes and 19 seconds)

Writer and/or Co-writer(s): Shane Boose (Sombr)

Genre: Indie Pop

Style of Music Video: Concept & Performance

Directed by: Gus Black

The Story (meaning): 

The song discusses the emotional twist of reversing back to being "just friends" with a once significant person. The overall message is a bittersweet mixture of longing, grief, and ultimately acceptance of the idea of how love has faded as an aftermath of a relationship. The core of the track focuses on the tension between intimacy and distance - the difficulty of shifting from lovers back to friends while still struggling to get rid of lingering feelings. 

Unlike most approaches in music where such a topic is described in more agony and destructiveness, Sombr (or Shane Boose) decided to lean more into quiet honesty, to admit that sometimes love is best preserved through friendship compared to romance. This storyline is meant to resonate with listeners who have also experienced the same awkwardness of navigating an alternation of dynamics with someone so important to them. This frame of reference holds more maturity and acceptance, showing that these transitions don't always have to be explosive, but a hint of softness may still be present. 

How the message was delivered through cinematography (Music Video):

The music video begins with Sombr stepping into a glamorous house party. The slow-motion shots following his appearance, cut on-the-beat to the track playing simultaneously, immediately set the tone: time feels suspended, as when facing the one he truly loved, all the things that define the world - time, places, reality - seem to vanish, leaving behind the heaviness of the memories of the person Sombr once shared closeness with. An extreme close-up shot focuses on the lips of a woman, her eyes shielded from the audience's view. Lips, especially when isolated in a frame, are a powerful shorthand for desire and communication. To include such camerwork encodes for the director's intention of showing Sombr's unspoken urge to reconnect with this woman, who can be decoded as his past lover. Sombr wears simple, understated clothing - jacket and jeans - in dark, fitted tones. This encodes the hidden message of the song - the stripped-down appeal emphasizes his "nakedness." 

Throughout the sequence, Sombr can be seen walking between crowds of people dancing, laughing, kissing, and touching. This excessive detail is meant to encode for skin-to-skin closeness and intense attachment -a  metaphor for the contrast between physical affection and emotional detachment. Close-ups of those touches are shown, seemingly to raise a hint of discomfort as if to encode the mental complication of overcoming the broken barrier of intimacy and rewinding to a more casual connection. 

The music video raises awareness to the LGBTQ+ community by presenting same-sex relationships in the same cinematic conditions as straight couples are shown - same lighting and composition (close-ups, slow-motion) - which emphasizes their point of view of how love between all genders should be normalized. 

In between different scenes, the sequence occasionally cuts to a completely different setting, where Sombr is seen actually performing the song to an invisible crowd (which is the music video's watchers). This particular sequence begins with a light shining down on Sombr, reflecting a confrontational state of mind where he is forced to deal with his pain of stripping away the inclination to continue to be with the woman. However, at the next cut, light is shown from behind him, directly pointing to the camera, as if deliberately trying to overwhelm the viewer with Sombr's shadow that connotes his deep thoughts. "Touch by body tender, (be)cause the feeling makes me weak," the line here expresses the need for gentle, caring affection and captures how this tenderness leaves Sombr emotionally exposed and unguarded, amplified by the bright, high-key lighting. His band is placed in front of screens or projections showcasing the party scenes, encoding that in his mind, he isn't truly at the party, but instead he is observing it from a distance, as if standing from a third-person perspective, symbolizing the "detachment" factor of his current state - not fully taking in the present. 

At midsection, the pacing of the cuts begins to quicken, gradually becoming more distorted and rapid - faces after faces, drinks spilling,g and intimate gestures, all in slow-motion. This forces the viewer to become almost distraught and confused, reflecting Sombr's internal conflict. This opposite attraction is amplified by the difference in backgrounds of the projections:

Sombr continuously performs in front of cold, blue-tone backgrounds, signifying his sadness, connoting emotional detachment (as cooler colors - like blue - are less stimulating than warm colors - like red). In addition, subtle tints added over scenes of the ocean, night skies, and empty rooms reflect the solitude of his soul, deepening the melancholy. 

 

Furthermore, in his performance scene, Sombr can be seen wearing a different outfit - a dark grey vest. This creates a juxtaposition to his initial appearance of a more worn-down vibe; here, the vest gives more of a formal aesthetic. This show juxtaposition as well as to signal to the audience the different versions of Sombr: he,m in the leather jacket, is still hung onto the thought of the woman, but the one in the vest is his official understanding of how and why the relationship ended, as in his present self looking back at the love and passion. 

Conversely, the woman appears on screen with the association of red and yellow, which connotes sensuality, warmth, and significant romance. Moreover, her visuals are represented by lava, which adds hints of intensity and overwhelming desire to the initial connotation. This embodies how Sombr still associates this woman with his own passion and devotion, how deep down he still wants to be closer to the warmth that she supposedly provides. Slowly, the 2 shades collide, illustrating Sombr's struggle of keeping the idea of this woman away from his mind. 

As the sequence progresses, more and more close-ups and medium shots show people kissing, touching, and still being intimate, suggesting the infatuation of the singer with the need to feel such proximity with his past lover. Cut to long and medium shots of Sombr's performance showcasing his devoted form, as if pouring his heart into the lines "How can we go back to being friends, when we just shared a bed" - Sharing a bed isn't just about sex, but about vulnerability, comfort,t and breaking an irreversible boundary. 

As the song builds up, quick cutaways are included that are seemingly jarring and unrelated. However, I believe they all hold certain meanings that, together, form a deep understanding of the emotions of Sombr while writing the song. 

The mantis: Symbolize patience, stillness, and contemplation, but they are also known for predation (female mantises are famous for devouring their mates). This mirrors the dynamic of the relationship between Sombr and the woman - Intimate but consumes who he is at the same time. 

Lava: Lava can connote intense passion, heat, and volatility. It is beautiful yet destructive and incredibly dangerous, implying that their relationship may have burned brightly as the flames, but cannot be sustained and kept under control. 

Together, those two images create a blend of metaphorical fragments that dramatize the badness of each of their desires. 

The video ends by circling, almost like a revolving door, leading the viewer through the party scene, then the performance, then the girl over again. The loop leaves the audience in a mix of longing and disconnection - encoding the unresolved, or unfinished story between 2 lovers. 

Branding: 

By placing Sombr in muted, understated clothing with his expression and behaviour distant and almost mentally isolated from the vibrant and energetic surroundings of a party, the video puts him into the character of an introspective outsider - someone who sees beneath the shallow and fake intimacy of the people letting go of their consciousness and giving in to intrusive thoughts of wants and desires. The dreamy, slow-motion effect shows the intensity of the rawness of the emotions experienced by the characters, how Sombr takes in every second of his gaze towards the woman to really take in her figure and let their memories together sink into his mind. Moreover, the simplicity of the storyline - struggling to become "just friends" with someone whom he once or still loves reflects a universal experience,gps directly onto the dilemma of "whether or not to continue to be friends with your ex," which is relatable to numerous people. Altogether, Sombr's image is fixed to be understanding of the people of the younger generation, and an honest figure who values true connection over physical lust.