Are We Alright Again
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| "Are We Alright Again" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Eels | ||||
| from the album Earth to Dora | ||||
| Released | September 16, 2020 | |||
| Recorded | 2020 | |||
| Studio |
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| Genre | Indie rock | |||
| Length | 3:43 | |||
| Label | E Works Records | |||
| Songwriter(s) |
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| Producer(s) |
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| Eels singles chronology | ||||
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"Are We Alright Again" is a song by American rock band Eels. It was released as a single from their 2020 album Earth to Dora.
"Are We Alright Again" had a music video made available from 11 November 2020 featuring the actor Jon Hamm in a Greg Barnes directed long single take.[1] The video also featured appearances from Eels frontman E's co-stars Mike Mitchell and Eric Edelstein from the television show Love.[2][3][4][5]
Rolling Stone reported that in the video for “the feel-good hit of the feel-worst year” was Jon Hamm, supposedly an Eels superfan in real life, appearing as a fan who puts headphones on to listen to the track and “becomes so absorbed by the music that he’s oblivious to the chaos happening behind him: Home invasion, the theft of all his possessions, and the assault of a friend who happens to stop by mid-robbery.”[6]
E is quoted as saying “I actually met Jon at an Eels concert several years ago while Mad Men was still on the air. I was off stage between encores and the tour manager said, ‘Don Draper and Roger Sterling are here. I was like, ‘Oh my god’ because I'm a huge Mad Men fan and we’ve become friends since then.”[6]
Controversy
The band had to respond to claims from fans of New Zealand band Goodshirt that the video was too similar to one they had previously released called “Sophie” in 2002. E said “It’s been brought to our attention that our new video for the song ‘Are We Alright Again’ is eerily similar to one made by the New Zealand band Goodshirt. We were not familiar with the band or their video. It seems to be purely coincidental."
Director Greg Barnes explains the origin of his concept: “It wasn’t a burglary to begin with; I wanted the protagonist to wear headphones and to make some toast, and put a pot on the stove, play the track and completely forget the world around him – then – in the background the toast would set fire, the pot would bubble over and the entire kitchen would burn and break behind him. After talking with the production designers they told me that was way beyond our budget. Then, in an email conversation with my producer, I came up with the idea that it would be so much cheaper to turn it into a burglary – where items needn’t be destroyed but instead simply removed.” My sincere apologies to Goodshirt for the similarities. It's a crazy coincidence that we ended up with something so similar. The nice thing about this being called to our attention is now I know the band Goodshirt. They're awesome. Check them out.”[7][8]