A bunch of mutant Mystique's buss it in Nao's video for "Messy Love"

British R&B singer Nao had a slight mishap where her single "Messy Love" found its way on streaming platforms FAR earlier than planned, which prompted her to bring the release date forward. Although it was still a good couple of weeks after the song first made its way online. And now another month after the song's official release we now have a music video.

We've become pretty accustomed in this YouTube age of music releases and music videos dropping on the same day, but I quite like the staggered approach of a song release before a music video. It gives fans something to look forward to, and it means teams don't have to send themselves into a tizzy trying to get everything done to release at the same time. Everybody always wants things now and simultaneously. I'd like to see bigger artists and labels start to shift this expectation, so it's not a given standard. But maybe that's just me.

Anyway. Check out this gorgeous music video directed by Amsterdam based director Lisette Donkersloot.

Another example of how you don't need to have lots going on and some astronomical budget to deliver something special. Just a great team of people and somebody with a great creative vision. Oddly enough a video that came to mind as I watched this was Ayumi Hamasaki's "Haru Yo, Koi". "Messy Love" did everything that video did, but executed it far better.

The song is also gorgeous. It's not much of a departure for Nao, which I'm absolutely fine with. "Messy Love" is co-produced by D'Mile, who also produced H.E.R's Oscar award winning song "Fight for You" for Judas and the Black Messiah, who also produced Victoria Monet's horridly overlooked EP Jaguar. So hopefully we can expect more from D'Mile on Nao's third studio album, which is titled And Then Life Was Beautiful will release in September 24, 2021.