Music Video Expectations: Set It Off’s “Duality”

I’m not embarrassed to say that when I’m really entranced in a song I start to imagine what it’s accompanying music video would look like. The case goes for Set It Off‘s title track from their 2014 sophomore album. I’ve only imagined its potential music video to be one way and now my active imagination came to life when the band finally released a music video for it.

“Duality” is a very honest and dark track written from a state of mind that most of us can relate to. As front man Cody Carson mentioned in the album commentary on Spotify, the song is about wanting to come clean with infatuation with, well, sex and serves as a warning to those who may not necessarily agree with his interest in it. Not saying that everyone has a secret love affair with getting their freak on whenever they can, but we may have some parts of us that we are afraid to reveal to people whether they be of the sexual nature or not. Our society’s obsession with having to be ‘perfect’ puts a strain on all of us wanting to open with out flaws and not be judged for them, something “Duality” touches base on within its lyrics.

The song’s bridge “I am good, I am evil/I am solace, I am chaos/I am human, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be” as well as its chorus are the focal points that bring the rest of the track together, and are what I thought would probably be the focal points of its accompanying music video. I picture a seductive, darker, even sinister, side of Carson to come out while he belts out the words.  As the song is about coming to terms with his desire for sex, I imagined a hallway filled with mirrors, each of which reflecting a different moment featuring him lusting after a model-esque woman (or even women), paired with scenes of shadowy silhouettes playing a sensual game of cat and mouse.

The actual music video for “Duality” was a lot more colorful than I thought it would be. I loved that they found a way to incorporate the remaining band members in an artistic way, instead of them hanging out in the background or not being featured at all. The video was a little less hot and heavy than I thought it would turn out to be, partly because their hand symbol on the album’s cover had just as many scenes as there were solo shots of band members. By all means I’m not hating on it, however it felt a little forced. Also, Carson has what we call a ‘resting nice face’ that sometimes makes it hard to take his seductiveness seriously.

Were my expectations met? It was half and half for me. I think they could’ve really done a lot more with the concept that was given to us to make it even more artistically dark and sexy, but Set It Off doesn’t need a softcore porn under their belt. Honestly, if Cody Carson was shirtless the entire time I think the video would’ve broken YouTube. Sorry not sorry.