The video for Robbie Williams’ throwbacky “You Know Me” conceptually flips around the title of the crooning 9/11 conspiracy theorist’s new album, Reality Killed The Video Star. Only here it’s the video that’s killing anything resembling reality, with Williams using an extended dream sequence as an excuse to dress up in a bunny suit and flit around like he’s late for a very important date with a choreographer and a batallion of backup dancers. The video, and five of my favorite things about its way-too-short three minutes, after the jump. MORE »
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The Five Best Things About Robbie Williams’ “You Know Me” Video, Aside From The Obviously Amazing Rabbit Suit Robbie Wears
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Kris Allen Is Running Out The Clock
Baby-faced American Idol victor Kris Allen’s first music video, for his cover of the Script’s seize-the-day anthem “Live Like We’re Dying,” is a simple—and pretty beautifully shot!—affair in which he performs in front of a desert-erected clock, which is presumably counting down the minutes until “living like we’re dying” turns into something that involves lopping off the first three words of that phrase. It’s a pretty effective clip, although I would like to voice my objection to the old “piano on the sand” trope that’s rapidly turning into a Serious Artist video cliché—especially since in this arrangement, the piano plays, like, fourth string to all of the strumming going on. (No pun intended, ha ha ha.) Related: I will be on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered this, er, weekend, talking about Allen’s new record, as well as new releases from other Simon Cowell-assisted singers like Adam Lambert, Carrie Underwood, and Susan Boyle. Tune in! [YouTube] MORE »
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The Human Nature Of Jarvis Cocker
The video for “Further Complications,” the title track from the second solo album by Jarvis Cocker, is a hybrid of Madonna’s boxed-in clip for “Human Nature” and Mad’s long-beloved Fold-In, with the dapper singer dancing like a spaz and being manipulated into . (NB: He is wearing a blazer, not the bondage gear Madge wore in that 1994 video—I guess that sort of getup would be more appropriate for a Relaxed Muscle clip.) After the jump, Jarvis in all his pixelated glory! MORE »
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Rihanna Takes On The “Spokeswoman For Domestic-Violence Survivors” Role
This morning’s Good Morning America showed the first snippet of Rihanna’s interview with Diane Sawyer, her first sit-down chat with a reporter since the February pre-Grammys incident in which she was assaulted by her then-boyfriend Chris Brown. And it’s a pretty gripping—if somewhat quease-inducing—part of the discussion to lead off with, as Rihanna talks about how she now feels embarrassed to have fallen for Brown, what led her back to him in the immediate aftermath of the incident (complete with statistic-citing), and how she finally decided to break things off with him for good. The part where she says “Eff love” will probably be quoted the most out of context, but the words surrounding it are, I think, the real message that she wants to send out to young women involved in abusive relationships: MORE »
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Mini Viva Shine A Bright Light
The second single from the Simon Fuller/Xenomania-masterminded pop duo Mini Viva is “I Wish,” a lush, longing track that has more than a passing resemblance to Girls Aloud’s “The Loving Kind.” It’s certainly not a groundbreaking track, but it is bouncy enough to make me want to find someone to synchronizedly dance with. (Although I think the only being around who’d be up to the challenge is my dog…) [Brightcove via The Chemistry Is Dead / Official site / Earlier] MORE »
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Aqua Warn Against The Dangers Of Color-Coordinating Your Dinner Parties’ Menus
There’s apparently a lot of symbolism in the video for “My Mamma Said,” the new video by the reformed Barbie-loving Scandinavian outfit Aqua—you’ve got the crisp white tablecloth marred by a bug, some mysterious milky beverage poured and sipped, blowing leaves, and lots of hard, longing looks. Fortunately, said overthinking doesn’t mar the song, a mournful little pop track about love lost and found that’s wound around a “Clocks”-ripoff sample. True, Rene Dif’s vocals are probably better-suited to instructing Barbie to go party with him, what with their being goofy on a level not seen since Einar Örn Benediktsson’s heyday. But I was listening to Robyn right before clicking “play” on the above clip, and I’ll be damned if the two didn’t fit together pretty nicely. [YouTube / MySpace] MORE »
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Rihanna Would Like To Be Your Graveyard Girl
What to say about the video for Rihanna’s “Wait Your Turn,” a black-and-white clip that looks like one it was directly inspired by the Flickr account of some high school goths? Well, it was directed by her frequent music-video collaborator Anthony Mandler. And the fuzzed-out black and white certainly works for her.. And the scene where it looks like she’s a particularly furry angel, thanks to her posing in front of a stone statue while wearing some sort of animal-skin coat, is striking, although I do hope that the fur is not real. But overall the video’s pretty meh, especially for a song that has “the wait is ova the wait is ova the wait is ova the wait is ova” as its endlessly repeating hook. The wait for what, exactly, has ceased? Clip after the jump. MORE »
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Shakira Engages In Some Bedroom Acrobatics
Shakira’s She Wolf, a fantastic album that will probably sink in the States thanks to its deliciously dinky sonics and its underlying conceit of being a record made by a woman who actually enjoys, and sees the fun side of, human sexuality (scandal!), has apparently had its U.S. release date rescheduled for Nov. 23, the pre-Thanksgiving Super Monday that’s going to be loaded with giftable CDs. (Also on shelves that day, which is more and more seeming like some sort of last hurrah: Rihanna, Adam Lambert, Susan Boyle, the value-added reissue of Lady GaGa’s The Fame.) Anyway, the video for the jittery, sigh-filled “Did It Again” is out, and it’s mostly four minutes of Shakira and some guy enjoying a very choreographed bedroom liasion. Clip after the jump. MORE »
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Hoobastank Covers “Ghostbusters,” And You Kind Of Have To Give Them Credit, I Guess
For Halloween, much-maligned hard-rock band Hoobastank put some proton packs on their backs and then split… to a video shoot, where they very faithfully recreated Ray Parker Jr.’s theme to the timeless flick Ghostbusters. The cover is actually not too terrible, although perhaps I’m being a little nicer than I might because the level of detail in this clip is pretty dead-on—the mashed-up Ghostbusters/Hoobastank logo on the boys’ uniforms is ace, and I especially like that one Hoobastankian has perfected Peter Venkman’s fire-flouting style of holding his cigarette between his lips. (NB: This does not absolve the band for “The Reason” in any way, shape or form. Trust.) [YouTube] MORE »
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Britney Spears Is Dancing At The Top Of The World
Today is the second anniversary of the release date of Britney Spears’ Blackout, the pop tartlet’s weird “dark period” album that was chock-full of good dance jams and cameos by the likes of Robyn. I doubt the release of her clip for “3″ is explicitly in honor of that milestone, but it does seem like some sort of circle of life has been completed, with the song topping the charts and her once again unafraid to show off her midriff in a (relatively) tasteful manner. The video isn’t all that much, when all’s said and done; it mostly consists of Britney dancing suggestively, if somewhat disinterestedly, with phalanxes of men and women, intercut with her giving the camera the old “over-the-shoulder sultry” look that we’ve all come to know and love. But, you know, given that the song’s already topped the charts, a) did it really need to be anything else, and b) isn’t it nice that she resisted the CGI menace that has befallen so many other pop stars as of late? Clip after the jump. MORE »
