Portishead

"S.O.S." (ABBA cover) (video)

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Jun 22, 2016

After first appearing in director Ben Wheatley's High-Rise feature, Portishead's shadowy cover of ABBA's "S.O.S." has been given its own music video.

It's a simple clip, one that taps into the unsettling sonic feeling grafted to Portishead's chilly, synthetic re-envisioning of the once jubilant Swedish pop arrangement. The camera crawls towards a static Beth Gibbons, whose voice courses through the speakers singing of hurt. She reaches our way in the affecting finale.

The clip ends with a quote from slain British Labour MP Jo Cox: "We have far more in common than which divides us."

It's an intense, pensive video for the similarly modelled cover, and you can absorb it down below.

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