Adelaide-based songwriter Anna Jeavons continues her evolution ahead of her forthcoming debut album Anomie with the release of her striking new single “Smart Casual” — and today, we’re premiering the official video.
Produced by Ben Stewart (Slowly Slowly), “Smart Casual” is a slow-burn that swells into something quietly powerful. Built on layered guitars and Jeavons’ commanding vocal, the track captures a moment of vulnerability, with an emotional weight that lingers well beyond its final notes.
On “Smart Casual”, Anna Jeavons turns existential unease into something quietly hopeful — a slow-burning anthem about patience, healing and the belief that growth will come.
Reflecting on the song, Jeavons explains:
“Smart Casual is a song about how we don’t grow all year round and, like plants, need light and time. Like a lot of songs on the album, it wrestles with existential angst; it’s an outpouring of loneliness, and yearning for meaning. In the lyrics I say: I don’t believe in anything; I am more alone than I have ever been.
But it’s not all depressing. At the end you can hear me repeat the lyrics ‘it’ll be alright’, almost like a mantra. I think I wanted to believe I could tend to the parts of me that felt cold or buried – and eventually be ready to unfurl and grow again.”
Alongside the single, Jeavons co-directed the accompanying video with Brendan Levi, drawing on her connection to the natural world as both refuge and release. The clip opens with Jeavons walking towards the camera on a train platform, before commuting home and stepping into the intimacy of her bedroom — a simple but effective sequence that draws the viewer into the emotional core of the track.
“Imagery like lying in grass, or being engulfed by the ocean, is an important visual for the album. Reconnecting with the natural world, and listening to it, helps me slow down; to stop rushing headlong to my death. It makes me feel connected to something bigger, universal, eternal – to the natural order of things. Less alone. I can immerse my miserable, crushing individuality into something older and wiser – the earth, the long grass; a speck intermingling with an enormous universe.
The video was shot at locations between Brownhill Creek, Belair and Lynton Railway Station in Adelaide. I wanted to contrast the footage with imagery of lying in bed in a dark room doomscrolling, representing depression.
I recruited my friends Brendan Levi and Daniel Wise to bring this one to life. We focused on aligning match cuts between the bedroom and the nature shots, and capturing footage from above that pulls out slowly. I was hoping to create a feeling of expansion, like in the song. It starts simple, then builds and opens up at the end, becoming big and cinematic. We wanted to mirror that in the music video.”
The result is a visual that mirrors the track’s emotional arc — moving from isolation to something more expansive — reinforcing the themes that sit at the heart of Anomie, due the 29th of April (pre-order HERE).
With a string of releases already shaping the album’s world, “Smart Casual” marks another compelling step forward, highlighting Jeavons’ ability to articulate complex emotional states with clarity, honesty and quiet hope.
Watch the video for “Smart Casual” below – and be sure to pre-save the album, Anomie, HERE:
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