PJ Morton is officially in new album mode. He’s begun its rollout with the hypnotic first single “Please Be Good,” one of the many he recorded for the as-yet-untitled project while on location all around the continent of Africa. Now, like clockwork, the single has gotten a music video.
Movement – or at least the illusion of it – is a central theme in the “Please Be Good” visual. Director Ricardo Betancourt makes the magic happen on a soundstage at LucyXR studios in New Orleans. He captures a mostly stationary PJ either standing and playing the keyboards or sitting in a vintage whip, the images on a screen at the rear of the set are in motion. As Morton sits behind the wheel of the car, it appears as if he’s driving thanks to the moving cityscape behind him and creative lighting effects that mimic the darkness of nighttime and warm glow of streetlights.
Betancourt also focuses his camera on PJ’s costar, dancer Chipo Kandake, who brings actual movement to the clip. Like the video of a sunset playing on the screen when she first appears, she smolders on stage with her sultry dance moves every time the camera cuts to her.
In the second half of the video, PJ and Chipo are filmed in separate scenes in front of an ocean of undulating waves. PJ isn’t known for his dancing, so he simply stands there to sing while she moves to the song’s beat and the motion of the ocean.
There’s much more to come from PJ Morton with his new album and his debut book Saturday Night, Sunday Morning: Staying True To Myself From The Pews To The Stage both on the horizon. As we await everything that this brilliant star has to come, “Please Be Good” to PJ and run up the views on his latest visual. You can start right here.
