Tove Lo: Habits (Stay High)

Tove Lo's Habits (Stay High) is a performance mixed with a narrative. It follows a woman who parties constantly to try and numb her feelings for her ex. The filming style is more unique as it uses the fish eye lens effect for the entire video.

At the beginning of her video, Tove Lo is waking up from a night out and making her way home. It's all very normal and ordinary. However, when she gets home things start to indicate an unhealthy life. There's a montage of different shots all showing her getting ready for a night out again, although it looks like multiple different nights as she keeps changing clothes, showing that this is a regular occurrence. There are multiple shots throughout the video focusing on her lips, emphasising her sexuality is something that she uses to help distract herself. There is an emphasis on her makeup, making her look bold and seductive, showing that this is what she does every night.

For the chorus of the song, it cuts between her walking around all made up and her singing in a dark room with black clothing. When she meets her friends, the drinking starts and it's obvious that the video wants to make it seem like she's drinking a lot. Again there's focus on her drinking and around her lips. It keeps cutting to her singing but instead of looking distressed she's now trying to be alluring and again emphasising her sexuality. There's a big contrast between her singing self, which is very distressed and upset and the self who is out partying and having fun.

Towards the end of the video, her breakdown begins and it's only seen briefly to begin with. Just a second of her crying in a dirty bathroom. But it increases quickly until it's affecting her party self, the smile drips off her face and she looks worse and worse about what she's doing. The video ends the same way it started, with her passed out on a bed.