Music Videos #27: In Which There Are Jellyfish.
1) Scissor Sisters, 'Comfortably Numb'
Director: unknown
From the 2004 album Scissor Sisters
www.youtube.com/watch
I've never been a particularly big fan of the Scissor Sisters, in the same way that I've never been a big fan of most music from the 1980s: I'll groove a bit if they come on, and will probably know most of the lyrics by osmosis, but I won't go out and purchase albums, or watch them if there's anything else going on. That said, I took an interest in their cover of the Pink Floyd classic, and this music video, as they've taken the old drug-trip anthem and updated it for a generation that takes all of their drugs in pill form (it's the future, apparently, people!). The video was conceived as a simple representation of a drug trip, and despite it being a little alarming and artificial, it succeeds on some levels - the Busby Berkeley element of some of the shots, particularly with the jellyfish bouncing around them, certainly seem to suggest some kind of E trip. But I can't help but feel that this video isn't quite refined enough to demonstrate precisely what it wants to. The eels are an element of bad trip that isn't carried beyond this one moment or, in fact, ever mentioned again. It all feels somewhat incomplete.
2) Chemical Brothers feat. Richard Ashcroft, 'The Test'
Directors: Dom & Nic
From the 2002 album Come With Us
www.youtube.com/watch
In this video, however, the whole concept is brought off perfectly. The imagery all the way through is utterly surreal, but whether it's actually representing a drug trip is debatable. It certainly uses a lot of the visual cues of the drug trip - the vapour trails left by the protagonist's hand as it sweeps in an arc over her head; the girl in the red jacket and what makes her so special; and the use of high shutter speeds to get a real sense of definition throughout the video: all of these are used to make the scene feel so otherworldly. In the opening shot, we feel as weightless as the girl, calm despite the fact that she's floating underwater for what feels like a long time. Out of the darkness sweeps a whale, coursing past her like a limousine but seeming just as weightless as everything else. Then, sliding up past her in effervescent glory, a troupe of jellyfish buzz like neon signs, their colours switching in time with the beat of the song. The great animation of the jellyfish (much better than the Scissor Sisters video) is the highlight of this sequence: demonstrating the amount of care that went into this very impressive video.
3) Gorillaz, 'On Melancholy Hill'
Director: Jamie Hewlett
From the 2010 album Plastic Beach
www.youtube.com/watch
I was surprised to hear the kick of the steel drum a few seconds into this song: from the style of the opening of the video, and what I've grown accustomed to from the Gorillaz (a large number of their music videos are episodic), I was expecting the track to be dark and tormented and the video to be much the same. It seemed similar to 'El Manana', where a flying island gets destroyed by fighter helicopters. So it was somewhat of a relief to watch us duck beneath the waves and enter a delightfully malevolent world where hosts of adorable jellyfish meet their untimely (if amusing) end. There are cyborgs and submarines shaped like sharks, and a rather nauseating bit where one character spits out a full-sized octopus (which is still cute). Lou Reed and Snoop Dogg make cartoon cameos, as the pilots of their own craft, and one appears to be based on the Catbus. It's all quite confusing, as the music videos by this band tend to subscribe to 'Rule of Cool' above all else, but everyone makes an appearance and there's a shot at the end of what I can only assume is the location for the next video. It just feels like fun.
EDIT: Yeah, it's the location for the next video, 'Rhinestone Eyes'.