For our video of Wild Rivers’ “Better When We’re Falling Apart,” we teamed up with artist Emma Baynes to create a whimsical exploration of the song’s imagery-rich world. With floating harmonies and cascading guitars, Wild Rivers’ duet is an achingly lovely homage to complicated relationships. “Better When We’re Falling Apart” understands the allure of a troubled connection, and, as the lyrics explain, “There’s something ‘bout it / I don’t wanna fix it.”

The video begins with a black and white illustration of a door opening. Inside the door is the colorful world of Wild Rivers’ lyrics. As we watch, the same door—now lit from within, having spilled out its dark blue interior to fill the entire background—closes shut, mirroring the song’s opening lines: “I know how your door sounds when it closes / and I come running back before you know it.” Baynes’s illustrations play with the lyrics, sometimes matching the choruses exactly, and sometimes developing their own take on the song. Her handwritten lyrics melt down the screen as Wild Rivers sing “We’re like ice cream / running down my thumb” before dissolving into a lit match as the chorus moves into “And we light it / And watch it all burn up.” 

Baynes’s animations underscore the balance of joy and melancholy in “Better When We’re Falling Apart.” The video’s palette sometimes explodes into gold and green, before lapsing back into a deep navy. Birds, flowers, houses, and the moon all pair with the song’s acoustic groove, matching the comfort of a well-worn connection. “Better When We’re Falling Apart” is a song that celebrates the most confusing parts of loving someone when it should be finished. Some relationships, like a favorite pair of 501s, are more beautiful once they’re broken in—or even when they just feel broken.