Music / ADDICT

Till death do us part
But, we're already past that phase

I'm addicted to the madness
This hotel is my Atlantis
We're forever gonna have a fucking reason to sin
Let me leave my soul to burn and I'll be breathin' it in

— Angel Dust and Cherri Bomb

"ADDICT" is a 2020 Psychological Horror electropop song from the adult animated series Hazbin Hotel. It was originally a fan-song composed by Silva Hound and sung by Michael Kovach and Kelly "Chi-Chi" Boyer. It eventually got a fully animated Music Video produced by Hazbin Hotel creator Vivienne Medrano.

It is told from the perspective of porn star Angel Dust (Kovach) and his partner-in-crime Cherri Bomb (Boyer) as they talk about the struggles of being addicted to drugs, violence, sex, and chaos in order to cope with the abuse, pain, and misery in a cruel world like Hell.

It can be found here on YouTube.

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Tropes:

• All There in the Script: Valentino's arm candy aren't named in the video itself. Cécilia "Calis" Goncalves, the one who designed the characters, revealed in a tweet that she named them in her head Dia, the succubus, and Summer, the cat girl. Sara "Serval" Fisher, the lead compositor on the music video, in a behind the scenes video reconfirms Dia's name, though she also states that the cat girl is named Lulu. Despite this discrepancy over the cat girl's name, Calis however states in a number of tweets that her name is actually indeed Summer. It was originally Lulu but was changed to Summer due to sounding too similar to Loo Loo from Helluva Boss.
• The Cameo: Travis, Angel's customer from the pilot episode, appears watching his strip show and gets kicked in the face.
• Caps Lock: The song's title "ADDICT" is stylized by capitalizing every letter.
• Content Warning: Unlike the silly content warnings before Helluva Boss episodes about "naughty language and horny demons", the video begins with a completely serious warning about graphic language, adult content, flashing lights, depictions of sexual assault, abuse, and addiction, and that only viewers 18 and older should watch it.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Angel doesn't take kindly to Charlie trying to comfort him in The Stinger.
• Forceful Kiss: Valentino forces Angel Dust into a kiss despite the latter being very uncomfortable.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • The music video was released long before the show's debut on Amazon Prime, meaning Angel Dust is still voiced by his pilot actor Michael Kovach instead of Blake Roman.
  • Though it's downplayed due to all the Costume Porn, both Angel Dust and Cherri Bomb have their pilot designs in shots where they're wearing their default normal outfits. This is obviously more noticeable in Angel's case since his entire wardrobe was tweaked whereas Cherri only had some minor cosmetic touches applied for the actual show.
  • One shot continues the trend of pre-release material implying that Valentino was financially abusing Angel to the point where he was unable to live comfortably and had to settle with a shitty apartment, which is absent in the show proper.
  • Valentino's porn studio looks totally different from the show, and is also not a part of the larger headquarters of the Vees that it's normally located inside of.
  • The song portrays Cherri as being in a similar situation to Angel, using Hookers and Blow as a way to forget about the awful choices she's made and the people who have wronged her. In the show proper, she's a Hard-Drinking Party Girl played straight who primarily plays Foil to Husk.
• Go-to-Sleep Ending: The last shot of the video is Angel going to sleep and giving a small smile when his pet pig Fat Nuggets licks him.
• Lyrical Dissonance: The song is full of this, with a hint of Soundtrack Dissonance as well. It sounds like a peppy and cheery song with some silly sex and violence going on, but listening and looking a little closer (doubly so for the video, which sugarcoats nothing) tells an incredibly depressing story about Angel and Cherri being "addicted" to their lifestyles, using sex, drugs, murder, and mayhem in an attempt to ignore their pain and sadness.
• Match Cut: A puddle of Angel's tears on the floor cuts to a puddle of rainwater on the ground outside, in which the reflection of Cherri's former associate can be seen for a second before she runs through it.
• Mood Whiplash: The video begins with Angel shirtless and pole dancing in a seductive fashion before it starts rapidly cutting back and forth between shots of him seemingly reveling in the attention of the club patrons and shots of him sobbing and clearly miserable in bed with Cherri trying to comfort him.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: At the end of the video, Angel is still in Valentino's employ and feeling helpless to change his hedonistic lifestyle, but expresses the sentiment that "maybe things won't be so terrible inside this hotel."
• The Stinger: The music video has a last verse after the credits with a different tune that averts the rest of the song's Lyrical Dissonance and in fact, brings it (and a glimmer of a Hope Spot) to the forefront. The video itself simply shows Angel at the hotel coming down from his high and shoving away/flipping off a hurt-looking Charlie when she attempts to comfort him.

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