Just when you thought Lewis Capaldi couldn’t make you cry any harder than he did with “Someone You Loved,” the singer-songwriter is airing out his heartache all over again. Someone give this man a hug, pronto.
On Friday (October 18), Capaldi debuted the video for “Bruises,” another compelling ballad that details his post-breakup blues. “I’ve been told, I’ve been told to get you off my mind / But I hope I never lose the bruises that you left behind,” he belts while standing in the middle of a desolate scene.
The majority of the video, directed by Emil Nava, centers around a young couple and the dramatic aftermath of their relationship. As they stare intensely at each other, we see flashbacks of their ups and downs together, and the tension eventually comes to a head with a molotov cocktail-fueled riot. Capaldi himself goes up in flames (literally), and the whole thing ends very cryptically — does the couple reconcile, or are they too burned and bruised? Watch below and decide for yourself.
“Bruises” is taken from Capaldi’s EP of the same name, as well as his debut album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent. The single was originally released back in 2017, but it’s found new life as Capaldi’s star power has grown this year, thanks in large part to “Someone You Loved.”
The Scottish singer-songwriter, who is October’s MTV Push artist, recently gave us an exclusive performance of “Bruises” and discussed the genesis of the emotional single. He said, “‘Bruises’ was probably the first song I wrote about that breakup that I had with this lady, and it was the first time that I’d ever written song that was proper about heartbreak and stuff like that.”
He also revealed that “Bruises” was the first song he ever wrote on a piano, which totally changed the direction of Divinely Uninspired. “I wrote it the day I turned 20. The album I was making was going in one direction, and then I wrote ‘Bruises’ and things just tilted slightly,” he said, jokingly adding, “So if anyone is not a fan of my piano, sad, heartbreaky, ballady stuff, you can blame this song for doing it.”
