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Jenny Hval’s ‘That Battle Is Over’ Video Rejects Domestic Duties

Fans of Norwegian singer-songwriter Jenny Hval looking for a mini-break mid-workday will probably be pleased to see that the video for her new song, “That Battle Is Over,” is strictly SFW — unlike the clip for “Innocence Is Kinky,” which is definitely not. But both were directed by Zia Anger, who has also worked with Angel Olsen and Julianna Barwick. Of her latest work of art-film, Anger says:

I guess it goes back to ’96 for me, and the “girl power” mantra I’ve been repeating since I learned it from the Spice Girls. The female experience is far from singular (and even further from this white, suburban, American-retro dream), yet around every corner there is a common pain, a wisdom of ecstasy, and an obsession with the uncanny that we all share. Collaborating with an entirely female creative team (with the support of a few great gentlemen) gave birth to an exploration of Jenny’s song and an inquiry into the sarcasm that pulses through it.

Recognizable faces, including Cornelia Livingston and Melissa Auf der Maur, go through the motions of various household activities — tending to children, mixing something with a spatula, and, you know, applying lipstick all over the face — to the gentle back-porch sway of Hval’s drum machine and tambourine and tongue-in-cheek lines like “Feminism’s over.” Hval’s new album, Apocalypse, girl, arrives June 9 via Sacred Bones.