Category: Music Video Reviews
Watch: Ed Sheeran: “Thinking Out Loud”
Ed Sheeran has been recruiting an army of fans since his first studio album was released in 2011. His mounting success in Britain followed him to the US, and he’s been growing his musical career ever since. If it wasn’t already apparent from Sheeran’s own music, he’s an incredibly talented songwriter, having written for the likes of One Direction and co-written with his best friend, Taylor Swift. With only two studio albums, the talented singer has already achieved monumental success and continues to be a game-changer in the industry.
The video for “Thinking Out Loud” fits the style of the song, which is a ballad. Frequent radio listeners may only know Sheeran for his funky, pop hits such as “Sing” and “Don’t.” Much like any ballad, “Thinking Out Loud” shows a lesser-known side of the artist.
The video reflects this also. In it, Sheeran debuts his dancing skills, a very rare sight to behold. This isn’t full-out breakdancing or anything bizarre – instead, he shows off graceful old-school ballroom dancing. Sheeran acts as the support for his partner’s lifts and twirls, as she is the true star of the video. Her dance moves are flawless and unwavering, as Sheeran mostly dances in place.
Equally as surprising is Sheeran’s wardrobe change. The singer ditches his usual t-shirt-and-jeans attire in exchange for a vest and dress pants. His unique personality still finds a way to shine through without him being the star. Even though he appears sans guitar, he finds a way to incorporate air guitar into the video, adding a touch of playfulness to the serious song. The music video is a beautiful portrayal of dancing that matches the true eloquence of the ballad.
Hilary Duff is a crazy stalker in her new music video for “All About You”
Apparently Hilary Duff is exploring all avenues of insanity these days.
In her last video for “Chasing the Sun,” she was a schizophrenic co-worker with an affinity for confusing her office for a Malibu beach.
Now, in her latest, “All About You,” she is an entirely different brand of mentally unstable.
The somewhat forgettable song is about being totally obsessed with a guy to the point that you are willing to do whatever it takes to show him – very healthy stuff.
The video starts with Duff taking a sneaky photo of a hot guy sitting across the room from her (okay, so far not that creepy, because GUILTY – I’m looking at you, cute Mama’s Boy waiter #overeasy).
However, she then takes the vinyl record that he accidentally leaves behind and trots off to the dance studio to recount the (lack of) incident and show the photo to her friends, who act like they have never seen a good-looking man before.
It’s already feeling like a little much. If simply seeing an attractive human being impacts someone’s day this much, red flags are already waving frantically.
With the help of her enabling friends, Duff piles everyone in her awesome convertible to go on a full-blown search-party mission to find the stud. They run around town showing the picture to people until they finally get a flyer for a party he’s attending. Whereas some people might have turned back once they saw the signs that said “1 Mile to Stalkerville,” this girl blows right past them and doesn’t stop until she hits Crazy Town.
Insert totally random street dancing scene just for the hell of it.
In the end, our girl finds her man, walks up to him, and returns his record. He chats her up like he isn’t remotely concerned that she tracked him down like a bloodhound, and the story ends happily ever after. Beautiful.
Young the Giant: “Mind Over Matter (In the Open)”
Young the Giant’s September release of another travel-induced, impromptu music video is here to add to their growing repertoire of roadside, seaside, and hillside (pretty much wherever) jam sessions belonging to their “In The Open” series. Their latest performance comes to us from the edge of Angeles Crest Highway in southern California, and, being next on a stack of shoots that have thus far accumulated the YouTube equivalent of a surgeon’s retirement fund in views, it is definitely something worth paying attention to.
Here’s what we’re getting into: an indie rock band reinventing yet another tune from their second studio album, Mind Over Matter, in the name of…well, making music as the mood strikes. Evident from their past videos, Young the Giant’s penchant for finding interesting backdrops in between playing amphitheaters and digging in with a melodic weave of minor chords and some light percussion rings of being hyper genuine; it shines through from previous “In The Open” releases to this—this time, we get the album’s namesake, and it blows the original away.
The entirety of “Mind Over Matter (In The Open)” is played and filmed within a tunnel, the camera touching on each of the band members as we pan left, right, then back again. The closer we get to each, the more distorted and fuzzy the light at the end of the tunnel becomes, affecting the scene in much the same way the sounds of the five-piece ensemble mingle with the enclosure’s natural acoustics—brilliantly. Young the Giant’s delivery of a synth-free “Mind Over Matter” is definitely an experience to float through, and will have you wondering where your time went by the fifth replay. By the time we begin to backpedal with two of the band’s members through the mouth of the tunnel and out into the sunlight, the resolution we experience is consistent with something minimal, effective, and built of nothing but raw music.
So play it, and then replay it. Go into your bathroom, belt the chorus, and pretend you are in a cave (guilty). Revel in that echo and thrum of acoustic guitar strings, and let the beat wash over you a bit, even if makes you a few minutes late for work.
Here’s the original video:
Hilary Duff is a crazy schizo in her new music video for “Chasing the Sun”
A long time coming (even though I had no idea this was even happening), Lizzie McGuire Hilary Duff has finally released a new single called “Chasing the Sun.” Though it may not be “Come Clean,” and it’s definitely no “Hey Now,” it’s got a little something (not the least of which is Auto-Tune).
Not only do we have a new Duff track, but we also have a new music video!
In it, Hilary is a stressed-out, inappropriately-dressed-for-work (no way that skirt is longer than her fingertips) employee who keeps her pet hamster in her cubicle.
Clearly wanting an escape from her lame job and her less attractive co-workers, she fantasizes so much about going on vacation that she can’t keep her mind on what she is doing. Clumsiness ensues, as she runs into walls, has the office creep rub mayonnaise all over her arms, and splashes water on her colleagues during a business meeting. Oh, and she also almost spikes her hamster in its ball, because she thinks it’s a volleyball. This woman should not own pets.
In the end, she gets fired, but what her manager should really be doing is sending her to a shrink to get evaluated in the likely chance that she has schizophrenia. Seriously – someone get this girl some help.
On another note, Hilary looks gorg (love the hair), and there is a totally gratuitous selfie at the end of the video, so overall, nailed it. This is what psych ward dreams are made of.
“Chasing the Sun” is the lead single off Hilary’s upcoming album to be released this Fall.
REVIEW: David Lynch and Lykke Li’s “I’m Waiting Here”
Two years since David Lynch’s “Pinky’s Dream,” the release of his upcoming album, The Big Dream, is creeping along quite nicely, with Lykke Li’s whispered hint of a far sexier and more surreal theme of an album that may indeed be much bigger and better than its predecessor.
“I’m Waiting Here,” the Lykke Li/David Lynch collaborative single, is the only track released from the album so far, but lucky us, it is also accompanied by a music video (that is, unlucky for us, not directed by Lynch himself). Regardless, the video is the window to the song’s soul, and its vacant and hypnotic feel not only matches the track’s sound wonderfully, but it too will leave you feeling the way Lynch always intends to make you feel — just a little bit crazy.
It’s a tedious video following a long road as the landscape slips out of view over and over and over again. Our eyes follow along like the weary driver’s herself, as Lykke Li’s lovesick and airy voice repeatedly serenades us with the haunting words “I’m waiting here.” The video drives us with layered footage of the lanes, tricking us as if we’re focusing dry eyelids struggling to stay open until suddenly we’re parking in a headlight-lit neighborhood right off the side of the never-ending road. Then it’s over.
Which leaves us waiting here, as well.
The video tells us nothing, which is why its aftertaste leaves you feeling vaguely uncomfortable and subtly curious. There’s no explanation of the neighborhood we’re led to, nor do we have any sense of where we came from or who we are. Lykke Li sings “I’m waiting here,” but she also tells us that she’s burned bridges to get where she waits — granting an especially eerie and mysterious vibe. There is a story here, but we don’t know what it is.
It’s a simple and fitting visual for a song that instantly became my favorite Lykke Li song and a promise that “The Big Dream” is worth the wait after “Pinky’s Dream.” Where “Pinky’s Dream” has absolutely been repeated through my speakers, “I’m Waiting Here” gives the impression that perhaps “The Big Dream” will be worlds different than what we had originally expected.
Of course, that is an excellent thing. Right now we can’t know what strange neighborhood Lynch will drop us off at when the album is released next month, but it’s definitely a drive I’m willing to tag along for.
Four Short Film Music Videos to Battle Your A.D.D.
In today’s culture, size definitely matters.
As a rule of majority, we tend to take a mere glance at something before moving onto the next big thing. It’s just how the Youtube era works — brevity and catchiness are vital elements needed to grab viewers long enough for them to actually finish watching a video. If something is “too long,” the size of the hype needs to compensate for it. And if it does, maybe we’ll get around to it later. Until then, here’s “Gangnam Style.”
But then there are a handful of musicians this year that seem to be courageously attempting to change our incessantly growing ADD-attitude towards media. So far in 2013, musicians from Death Grips to Beach House have shown hope that short films in music might be the cure. Here are four videos to exercise your attention span:
Death Grips, “Come Up and Get Me”
Perhaps providing the best example of defying brevity and catchiness, Death Grips rung in the new year on January 4th by releasing a 13-minute long black and white short film for “Come Up and Get Me” that provides the viewer with a (mostly) silent and lengthy nine minutes of avant-garde footage before the track actually surfaces. It’s long, but it feels even longer as impatience for the track, “Come Up and Get Me,” wells inside of the viewer. Cut between recorded footage of boxing, cop cars, and Kim Kardashian, the film shows scenes of Death Grips hanging upside down in a hotel hallway, devouring flowers, handcuffed and drowning, and finally raging in a fur coat as the track finally explodes. The long span of silence attached to the strange scenes grants a chilling sense of anticipation and mystery that balances (and maybe even magnifies) the intensity of the song in a way that just couldn’t have been achieved in a four-minute long music video. While it takes some patience to sit through 13 minutes of an intangible story, the video does allow the song to be placed into another more powerful context and overall experience with the song.
Alexander Spit, “A Breathtaking Trip to That Other Side”
A couple weeks after Death Grips’ short film was released, Alexander Spit released a short film for the title track of his new album, A Breathtaking Trip to That Other Side. About a month prior to the short film’s release, he posted his Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas-styled music video for the single, where Spit drives a convertible down a long road while high out of his mind next to the grim reaper and a naked girl draped in an American flag. Taking the goofy adventure of the music video as a hint, I assumed the short film would burn with the same drug-induced party attitude. But the other side he takes us to in the short film isn’t the fun Hunter S. Thompson-inspired entertainment we see in the music video. If anything, it’s an ultra-horrifying and violently bad trip in Bat Country. The film is a grimy and harsh 17-minute long story starting with the worst-case scenario of getting beat up in the middle of nowhere while delivering a baby in a car. Spiraling further into hell, the daughter is continuously forced to make money for her abusive father both as a child and as a stripper in adulthood. The deranged story nears an end when she finally decides to leave her father and take the money as he’s passed out on a mattress. Only the story doesn’t actually end there— no, instead she proceeds to dance in the street until her life ironically runs full circle and a car runs her over. Alexander Spit’s album takes us on a trip from his Fear and Loathing-esque music video all the way to a shadow-drenched side that is far more reminiscent of Requiem for a Dream. It’s both engaging and hard to watch, but the album definitely feels a lot heavier after observing the songs relationship to the film.
The Knife, “Full of Fire”
In one word, your initial reaction from the short film for The Knife’s “Full of Fire” will be stress. Between their chaotic-sounding track and uncomfortable double takes and shots from a bird’s eye view, the short film can be described as tense from the first 30 seconds. Though from the beginning, the initial stress reaction is tied to the first character— an elderly woman who dresses as a man and stares into the mirror. Perhaps the most obvious theme of the film is the struggle between being the person you are presented as and being the person you believe you are, especially in terms of sexuality and gender. Aside from the elderly woman, we see vignettes of leather-covered men in lipstick and traditional families doing day-to-day tasks of cooking and cleaning. At one point, a female protestor is harassed and handcuffed by a female guard moments before they stare into each other’s eyes and walk away flirtatiously— handcuffs still locked. At another point, a professionally dressed woman urinates on the ground in plain sight. While the film’s plot is abstract, it does a good job of showing us how much gender and sexuality control our culture, and the underlying tension reminds us that this isn’t always easy.
Beach House, “Forever Still”
“Forever Still” is essentially just an outdoor Beach House performance in El Paso, Texas. It’s simple, it’s clean, it’s honest— it is an extremely fitting visual manifestation of Beach House’s music. The 26-minute long short film is earthy with faded colors and an occasional veil of smoke as Beach House performs in an isolated haven of dusk. Aside from the initial highway journey and late-night driving scenes, there are only a couple scenes abstaining from the band: a husky waking up from headlights, a miniature pony running by a fence. But Beach House doesn’t pretend to be anything but music – the visuals are simply a way to add another layer of atmosphere to their sound.
Washed Away by a2
Ólafur Arnalds & Nils Frahm – a2 (Official Video) from Erased Tapes on Vimeo.
In the midst of holiday festivities, insanity settles in.
Perhaps Ólafur Arnalds had this in mind when he posted the Michael Zoidis & Jodie Southgate video for his and Nils Frahm’s collaboration song, “a2”. Continue reading “Washed Away by a2”