Michel Gondry directs video for The White Stripes' new single, City Lights

Michel Gondry has directed the music video for The White Stripes’ new single, City Lights.

The vast majority of the video, bar a few frames, is composed of one shot showing a steamed-up shower screen. Throughout the five-minute video, an anonymous person in the shower live-draws along to the lyrics of the song, creating a series of quickly fading illustrations with their finger.

Starting with an image of linked hands, the layers of drawings mist up and are replaced by another: an eye, a cityscape, a plane, a tree, and a series of portraits of the song’s protagonists. All this is accompanied by the acoustic guitar strums of the band’s latest single, its first worldwide commercially released song since 2008.

According to a statement from the band’s label, Third Man Records, director Michel Gondry created the video “on his own and without anyone’s knowledge” then sent it to them. It is the fifth collaboration between the band and director.