It’s 2021 and offices are basically redundant. The spaces we were once forced to commute to, to spend each day doing our silly little tasks from, are now mostly empty relics of a pre-pandemic world. London soul singer Celeste, however, lives in another decade entirely and things are different there. You see, in the music video for her new single “Love Is Back” — taken from her forthcoming debut album Not Your Muse and premiering on i-D today — Celeste is most definitely the boss of her office.
“It’s the late 80s in London and the global currency is LOVE!” director Sammy King says, setting the scene. “The women of a buzzing stock exchange office are working around the clock to help bring love back to the top, and to do so, they’ll have to work together to sell love stocks via the airwaves.” Surrounded by a team of familiar faces — artist Faye Wei Wei, HRH Princess Julia, actor Jaime Winstone, fashion icon Miss Jason, musician Elheist, model Josephine Jones and Spice Girl Mel C among others — Celeste lectures an all-male board of directors about the world of love and just how valuable a resource it is.
“‘Love is Back’ goes back to the many moments I’ve had in which I think I’ve met The One again!” Celeste tells us. “So there’s an air of sarcasm and cynicism to it, but it remains playful, as you usually are in those moments.” She goes on to note that, “When I sing it now the feeling is different… because love really is back!”.
Of the video, the one to watch notes that her cast mates are “some of the women I admire” and that she had been wanting to collaborate with Sammy King for some time. “She had spent that last year and half with me, pre-pandemic, taking photos and videos of pretty much everything, so we’ve been speaking about making something for ages,” Celeste says. “The pandemic has had an effect on everything but we’ve found ways to make things work!”
Celeste’s first full-length 12-track record, Not Your Muse, is due for release 29 January, following a year and a half of hard graft on her part. “With each song that was finished, and each time I felt a bit closer to finishing the album, my confidence grew,” Celeste explains. “So there are definitely some themes of empowerment in there. I mainly just write about things I experience every day, though I can’t help but romanticise stuff.”
Until you can spend your days with the album on repeat, we recommend you dive regularly into “Love Is Back” and enjoy the tongue in cheek mood, the numerous cameos and Celeste’s epic latex power suit. And in case you were wondering, Celeste has worked in an office before actually. “I worked in a call centre once for about three hours when I was 16, but it seemed really dodgy and the boss was trying to bribe us to stay with Mars bars.” It’s safe to say that this office experience was a better one, then.