‘Berlin Got Blurry’: Parquet Courts’ crushing study of belonging
Whether it’s the pull and the traces of the historic art and masterpieces of history that call Berlin their home—from The bust of Nefertiti to the life-size Potsdamer Platz by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner or Caravaggio’s Amor Vincit Omnia—or the spirit of die Kreativität that ripples in the air, the city has always had a curious influence on the most inventive minds in music, in literature and film.
David Bowie broke away from the glam-rock glare of life after Ziggy Stardust to reinvent himself in Germany in the mid-1970s and returned with his legendary ‘Berlin Trilogy’ of Low, Heroes and Lodger. Bowie would return to images of Berlin in his later works, while Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode and U2 have all at times tapped into the spirit of the city to record albums in Berlin over the years, as well. In 2016, the city inspired Parquet Courts singer and lyricist Andrew Savage to get out his pen and write.
In a press release for the song ‘Berlin Got Blurry’, Savage explained that the track is “a song about saying goodbye to someone from the other side of the world and about feeling completely foreign to your environment; knowing you can’t go home, but not knowing where you belong.”
Singing as a stranger in a strange land, Savage’s lyrics touch on the ease of being unknown in a foreign city but the loneliness of being unknown by the person you’re missing. “Feels so effortless to be a stranger,” he sings, “But feeling foreign is such a lonely habit”. Describing the scene from the streets—from the “cell service” to the hot dog vendor who tells him in perfect English that he’s selling the best fast food in town—Savage closes with the lines “Well, Berlin got blurry as my thoughts all hurried to you”.
“I wrote the song in Berlin,” he explained in the press release, “So it made sense to try to recreate my experience for the video”. And that’s exactly what music video director Claes Nordwal did.
Alternating between clips of Savage singing alone and scenes from the city’s neon nights, with shots of the Banhof Potsdamer Platz or else shuttered up supermarkets and casinos, the video shows a city that should be bursting with life but is only offering closed doors and loneliness. Even where there are signs of life, in the cars and traffic on Bundesautobahn 10, no one is stopping. Everyone is just passing through and driving away.
In a sense, ‘Berlin Got Blurry’ could act as a sort of musical precursor and companion piece to, or soundtrack for, Amy Liptrot’s essayistic 2022 memoir, The Instant. Both are set in Berlin and deal with themes of isolation, belonging, and a seeking and searching drive for connection. The two pieces are intimate portraits of loneliness and connection. Connection with the self, connection with the city and the desire for connection with others. They are both a blur of the liminal space between the first goodbye and final farewell and are each a crushing study of the nature of belonging.
