Music Videos #23 - In Which It's a Bit of a Drag
1) Katie Melua, 'Nine Million Bicycles'
Director: Kevin Godley
From the 2005 album Piece by Piece
www.youtube.com/watch
Once described as the most innocent song a reviewer had ever heard, Katie Melua's track is thoroughly uplifting, perhaps bordering on the twee if you're a cynic like me. That said, the video for it is quite nice, and isn't dampened in the least by not being a oner (dragging someone around a complete circle in one take is impossible if you don't want the curve to be visible). This video reminds me in an interesting way of the video for Mogwai's 'Friend of the Night', in that the seams between the different locations we see are made up of interesting free-association. The locations themselves are visually interesting, and while all this seems like a very academic and clinical way of referring to it, it's the only way I can find that doesn't collapse into cloying sentimentality. The video has a great sense of continuity, broken only one when we pan up to what looked at first glance like Italy, but on a second viewing turned out to be the Forbidden City in Beijing. So, in more than one way, it all comes full-circle.
2) Efterklang, 'I Was Playing Drums'
Director: End of the Road Films
From the 2010 album Magic Chairs
www.youtube.com/watch
So, it seemed like a perfect moment to break out some Danish indie music, and Efterklang seemed like a good choice. The video for this track is utterly strange, starting off like a weird fairytale and quickly taking some darker turns. What begins with some almost abstract shots of a forest entangled in coloured cords gets pulled into sharp focus when we see a young man waking up to find himself being dragged through the forest in his pajamas. It could be the oddball beginning of a kids' film, but then we see his captors, and it gets quite unnerving. They're silent figures with giant paper bird heads, dressed in black robes. One of them is drumming. This quietly malevolent feeling is made even more palpable by the jump cuts worked into this video with the offbeats on the drums. And then, when he manages to escape from his woolen restraints, well... yeah. Their heads explode in clouds of coloured feathers, like bursting balloons. It's both cuddly and horrifying, like watching a kitten take down a wildebeest. It's quite adorably disturbing.
3) Pulled Apart By Horses, 'Back to the Fuck Yeah'
Director: Pulled Apart By Horses
From the 2010 album Pulled Apart By Horses
For a fourth time, Pulled Apart By Horses
There's so much that can be said about this one, despite the fact that it's a very simple concept told in under three minutes. Firstly, it's quite openly inspired by the Evil Dead franchise, what with all the being pulled backwards through the woods. It's got enough variety to stay interesting, by switching between a few stylistic choices: the band playing, the band being dragged, the band running through the woods. It's also nice that they've got a sound that matches this idea: they're the opposite of Efterklang. While Efterklang started off with a kick and rapidly settled into a high-powered but ultimately pleasant sound, Pulled Apart start screaming. And keep screaming. It's a nice touch that every time they return to their instruments to start playing again, they're a little more beaten up than before; bleeding a little bit more. For a low budget video, it feels genuine. But that's not why I keep coming back to this video. It's the kick at the very end, like the stinger in every horror movies you've ever seen, only it's timed perfectly enough that it doesn't seem trite at all.