Momoko's "Ether Flower" is a high saturation break-up hymn

"Ether Flower" is, at its core, a break-up track. The track draws on the insatiable contradiction at the core of all heartbreak pop – that crying-on-the-dancefloor vibe taken close to perfection by artists like Robyn, ABBA, and Kate Bush over the years. Like her forebears, Momoko carves her own sonic space to update that tradition for the present day. In this instance, the result is almost unnerving in its initial restraint and minimalism, before the sparse electronics of the opening verse give way to a hymnal chorus laden with multi-tracked vocals.

This single's Audrey Ellis Fox-directed music video balances a similar contradication as its core: there's a taught contrast between the desire for obscurity and for the spotlight. It's an allegorical representation of similar tensions in a dissolving relationship, reflected in dreamy, high saturation imagery.