Watch City Rain’s cinematic music video for “The Optimist” (playing North Star Bar on Monday)

With the release of City Rain’s new single “The Optimist” imminent, the duo today premiered a new music video for the song over at EDM website Magnetic Magazine. It’s a step forward from their previous video efforts – “I’m Gone” leaned more towards lo-fi goofiness (frontman Ben Runyan and former guitarist Jarrett Zerrer riding around West Chester on the back of a truck), while “Montage” was a brilliant slash of New Wave color and light reminiscent of 80s MTV.

By comparison, “The Optimist,” filmed in the streets and rooftops of Port Richmond by local videographer Simon Rogers, seems suited for multiplex screens. Tracing the song’s motivational message of pulling oneself up from distress and despair and finding your own path in life, it opens with Runyan literally at rock bottom and regaining his footing by chasing after the video’s female lead – who may be a love interest, or may be a metaphor for happiness and self-fullfillment. From Magnetic Mag:

Love and Loss in the Recession, “The Optimist,” is the human condition as told though the eyes of the young men of City Rain. While every person has the capability to create his or her own personal hell, there is inversely their capability to manifest redemption. “The Optimist” is the story of the way back.

You can watch the video for “The Optimist” below, and see it in person on a big (ish) screen at the release party / viewing party this Monday, May 27th, when City Rain’s appearance at the North Star Bar’s Victorian Dining Room series. The free concert series tends to showcase acoustic / stripped down / rearranged performances by local acts, and when Runyan appeared on XPN’s Philly Local Show this week, he said that City Rain would pull back from its normally bracing performances to a more hushed, intimate vibe to suit the room. More information at the North Star’s website.