Top 5 Music Videos of the Week: Depeche Mode, Bright Light Social Hour + More
Welcome back to the home of the music video magic. It’s that time once again where we explore the brightest and the best. Hope you brought your eyes and ears, ‘cause here we a-go!
5. Kalli Ma — “Promises”
How do you feel about creepy doll heads? Oh, you’re for them! Well, then “Promises” is the video for you. It’s a mostly abstract acid trip, sort of a CGI KMFDM kind of thing, but it also has an adorable animated girl happily skipping and kicking her way through a floor-covered in disembodied heads. Director Robert Pavlovskis manages to weave the beautiful and the grotesque into a captivating display, and it makes “Promises” unforgettable.
4. Without Waves — “Never Know Quite Why”
Another abstract affair, though “Never Know Quite Why” dances more in the dark than “Promises.” It’s a tad repetitive, even for videos of this nature, but it wins extra points for aping the art style of Dave McKean to the point it feels like a lost promotion for Mirrormask. I’ve got to remind myself to take a lot of cold medicine and watch this one again.
3. Maxïmo Park — “Risk to Exist”
This entry is my good deed for the day. The brave men and women of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) patrol the Mediterranean looking for stranded refugees in trouble on the ocean to rescue. Maxïmo Park has wedded an incredible song to even more incredible footage of the MOAS in action saving lives, and is donating profits of the song to the charity to help in their mission. You should pick up a copy.
2. The Bright Light Social Hour — “Tear Down That Wall”
This week’s entry in the “Fuck Our Incompetent Fascist President” category comes from our boys from Austin, The Bright Light Social Hour. “Tear Down the Wall” is a literal middle finger to the president’s misguided immigration ideas (you know Mexicans can get on planes, right dude?). Director Jack O’Brien has cobbled together a simple, but heartening collection of obscene finger gestures to the glorious wall, which mixes nicely with the song’s message.
1. Depeche Mode — “Where’s the Revolution”
And on that note, Depeche Mode is back with a new video directed by Anton Corbijn. It’s a glorious mockery of fascism and complacency, depicting dictatorship as an empty gesture of hollow dance and movement. Dave Gahan gestures in florid brilliance over his crowd lamenting how their compliance lets him down even as they drill mindlessly in front of them. It’s stark, empty, and exactly what the world needs right now. That’s why it’s the best video of the week!
