Synopsis

Handsome Furs' "What About Us" unfolds as a dark, dreamlike portrait of intimacy in a bleak urban landscape. Set against Portland's wet streets, concrete structures, and night-time shadows, the video moves between the duo, anonymous couples, dancing, embraces, nudity, and explicitly physical encounters. Rather than following a conventional storyline, it builds an impressionistic vision of people seeking warmth and connection in a damaged world. Its sensual imagery, eerie colors, and apocalyptic atmosphere give the song a cinematic, uneasy visual counterpart.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was shot in Portland, Oregon, during cold and rainy conditions. Several of its stark freeway and underpass images also supplied the visual language for the *Sound Kapital* campaign.

• The controversial photograph used for the *Sound Kapital* cover was taken during the video shoot. The cover shows a naked woman standing beneath Portland's Fremont Bridge, turning one of the video's central images into the album's most recognizable piece of artwork.

• The cover and video were intentionally developed as a unified visual project. Additional images from the shoot, including the band in a car and night-time freeway scenes, were incorporated into the album packaging.

• The video's sexual imagery was conceived as an exploration of intimacy rather than conventional pornography. Its emphasis on touch, vulnerability, and human contact was designed to challenge the idea that nudity itself is obscene.

• The clip premiered online in July 2011 and was widely labeled NSFW because it includes full nudity and explicit sexual activity. That restriction also helped make it one of the more provocative indie-rock videos of its period.

• "What About Us" was the first single from *Sound Kapital*, Handsome Furs' third and final studio album. The record was released by Sub Pop on June 28, 2011.

• The album's electronic and industrial character extended to the song's presentation: *Sound Kapital* was the first Handsome Furs album written entirely on keyboards, although guitars remained prominent in the finished recordings.

• Diamond Rings later remixed "What About Us" as part of the *Remix Rainbows* series.