Retrofuturist Glam Pop Icon Dominic Sen Takes Us on a Charmingly Nerdy Romantic Trip to the Museum on “Natural History”

DominicSen1_crop — Dominic Sen, photo courtesy the artist

Dominic Sen’s video for the new single “Natural History” is a jaunt through a natural history museum on the part of a visitor from the future captured with all of the intentionally lo-fi charm of an early 1980s camcorder. As with previous singles, Dominic Sen blends a soft synth pop with idiosyncratic science fiction concepts and the unabashed embrace of being a nerd. The lyrics of “Natural History” has lines like “A day at the museum with you is a parallel universe crossing my path” and “The mood in the gift shop is a phony uncertainty, do I purchase this postcard, do I let you inside?” No “normal” pop artist writes songs with words and imagery like that and it allows Dominic Sen to make truly unique metaphors and reinvent what romance and romanticizing and personal mythmaking can look and sound like. The “futuristic” outfit she wears in the video is about as convincing as something from a BBC production from the 1970s like something you’d see on Blake’s 7 or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The Tomorrow People or Dr. Who. But it works and it gives the video and its syncing with the vibe of the song a charming authenticity it wouldn’t if it was too conventionally legit. The song is part of Dominic Sen’s album Can’t Tell You written with Cameron Wisch (Cende, Porches) and Ronnie Stone (Ronnie Stone & The Lonely Riders) with Lily Cohen taking on the persona of Dominic Sen, a retrofuturist glam pop icon. Watch the video on YouTube and follow Dominic Sen at the links below.