video premiere: Francesca Belcourt – 17 Stitches

London's Francesca Belcourt shares the self-directed visuals for her lovely single "17 Stitches", taken from her new album Buds, coming later this month. The song starts with a stark, palpably fragile, whisper-soft recounting of a very harrowing and vulnerable time in Francesca's life, in which she endured a terrible breakup only to be subsequently run over by a fucking van, and it slowly, boldly builds into an emotional synth-pop banger that feels particularly cathartic and regenerative given the circumstances from which it was born. Francesca tells us about the song and video:

"'17 Stitches' was written from my bed following two brutal incidents; being run over by a van after a bad breakup. I filmed, directed and edited the video, starring my cousin Lydia, brother Louis and friend India, in two enchanted days at the Fish Ponds. The wound becomes metaphysical, leading to some unbearable truths. They dance in the face of them with reckless abandon."

Watch below. Francesca Belcourt's Buds is out on CD / digital on November 30th.