British export Lianne La Havas has been enjoying a whirlwind last few weeks stateside. Since the beginning of February alone, she's wowed audiences on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, been honored at the 4th Annual ESSENCE Black Women in Music event and performed at the 15th Annual GRAMMY Foundation Music Preservation Project, to name a few things. She's red hot right now and her fire continues to smolder in a pair new music videos that she released for the tracks "Elusive" and "Gone" today.
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In "Elusive," La Havas oozes sex appeal by merely glancing into the camera, but she serves up more than come-hither looks while a man's hands lovingly caress her face. She joins a group of modern dancers practicing in a studio and shares a palpable chemistry with the tall, dark and dreadlocked instructor that's felt whether they're together or dancing with other partners. Where will their desire lead them? Well, not where you might think in this first half of a two-part video that continues in "Gone." The first video has a hopeful, happy ending, but that ultimately turns out to be short-lived.
The visuals for "Gone" pick up where "Elusive" leaves off -- with Lianne and her lover wrapped in a heated embrace. But the love has lost its shine and so has Lianne who we now see in a state of distress with facial wounds and smeared makeup. What the hell has happened here one can't help but wonder, and the video backtracks to tell their tragic tale. Well, it's tragic for one of them. The video and the song both reach their intense climax at the same time in an unexpected and violent end. Kudos to director Colin Solal Cardo for capturing all sides of Lianne -- the good, the bad and the ugly.
