Singer-songwriter Tom Moran has dropped the accompanying music video for single “Oh Darling” off his recently released debut album, Roommate of a Friend of Mine. The full length album, released worldwide on September 24, is an introspective testimony to finding yourself amidst the chaos.

The single, “Oh Darling” allows listeners to dive deep and finds themselves in a story of wanting to reunite with a childhood love. Paired with an acoustic ambiance and nostalgic lyrics, you are left reaching your hands out for that chance — knowing you’d never let them walk out again.  

“‘Oh Darling’ was written early in my songwriting life. Someone I cared a lot about was sent away and I had no way of contacting them, so I wrote songs to deal with that pain. The song can be misconstrued as a break up song but it’s very far from that.” – Tom Moran

The newly released music video features animations curated by director/creative James Morano. To support the wholesome storytelling of “Oh Darling,” the drawings used in the latest visual were created by none other than Tom Moran himself. From beginning to end, listeners are left in a swirl of emotions as the single’s narration comes to life.

“I always wanted to make an animated video. I originally wanted to be an animator when I was a kid. I chose ‘Oh Darling’ because I thought it was a flagship song from the album, even though it was not one of the original singles. The visual story of the video came together as I went along drawing whatever came to mind while going through the lyrics line by line. I didn’t really know where it was going until I was drawing the last few parts.” – Tom Moran

When singer-songwriter Tom Moran makes reference to scenes like being stuck in traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, he’s not trying to get you to imagine yourself in a romanticized version of the Big Apple. He’s just a person trying to get home. And in the rare instances where famous landmarks appear on his full-length debut Roommate of a Friend of Mine, Moran strips away the glow of coolness that so often enshrouds them, making space for the kind of quiet introspection we rarely associate with the metropolitan grind. 

Roommate of a Friend of Mine is an album that very much points you back down to earth with songs that find their way to wherever you happen to be, to hit you where you live in every sense of the term. One can feel out of place—and learn how to find one’s place—anywhere. And it’s between those two poles of experience that a lifetime’s worth of highly relatable, almost beautifully mundane, interactions unfolds across the ten slice-of-life turns of rippling folk-pop the album showcases.

Check out the official premiere for Tom Moran’s new animated music video exclusively via PopMatters. The debut album, Roommate of a Friend of Mine, is available for listening across streaming services everywhere.