This week’s Music Video Lounge features Ciara working, Britney auto-tuning, Speech Debelle rapping, The Stone Roses 1989ing and Chairlift bruising. Take a seat whydontcha?
Ciara ft Missy Elliott - Work
Evidently, work to Ciara means construction in the desert - and who are we to argue? Ciara and her gal pals don toolbelts and chunky boots but still manage to perform a thigh-shattering dance routine on their haunches, shaking it Bollywood style to the Asian-inspired background beats. Ciara also has the good grace to strip off at certain moments, coyly bearing her bum cheeks for camera. Midway through Missy Elliott appears with a loud speaker to rap through, but she’s having none of the exposed jigging, being safely wrapped up in a tracksuit. The track is a stop-start clubbing anthem that’ll drill into the charts with no bother. If this lot turned up to fix your plumbing you might cock your head to one side, but you’d let them in and pay the bill with no qualms.
Chairlift - Bruises
You’ll recognise this as that song off of that iPod ad and you’d be right. It’s also that song off of that group from Brooklyn - you know, Chairlift, the ones who have supported The Killers and are mates with Passion Pit. The video comprises the dream-pop trio - for that is their genre - sitting around among a load of old TVs singing away. Then at the end as the song gets all high-pitched and squeaky, lead singer Caroline Polacheck is starkers bar some shiny wrap and a full-on orgy is taking place amid the TV sets, which all looks terribly uncomfortable to us. All of this ’sieze the day’ stuff is all well and good, but really, a big comfy bed is where you want to be getting it on rather than on the corner of a 10-year-old Toshiba TRW13971, so don’t try to tell us otherwise.
The Stone Roses - Fools Gold
Along with the Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses defined the spirit of Madchester and this slather of retro does just that too. We were there first time round and our memories are exactly like this video: hazy, ill-dressed and just a bit out of focus. Listen to the heavy bassline; witness the shaggy hair; wonder at the not-quite-so-craggy face of Ian Brown. The Stone Roses first released this way back in 1989 and 20 years on, they’re releasing it as a celebration once again. First time around, Britney was seven and Ciara was three - how will this retro nugget sit alongside them today?
Speech Debelle - Better Days
Interest is brewing in the Londoner after her Mercury nomination and this latest single taken from debut album Speech Therapy should only whip it up some more. It’s got understated beauty and sitting squarely on the shelf marked ‘grower’, it slips into your subconscious and rolls around your ear drums long after the music’s stopped. The video’s a low budget affair featuring Speech rappin’ wiv a Londin accent innit and Micachu joining in the low-key chorus. Try it, you might like it.
Britney Spears - Radar
Last up this week we have some bird called Britney vapidly auto-tuning her way through an idenitikit pop song - break it up and you can still see the joins. In the video, our Brit has come over all Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman - no, not the whore bit but rather the polo bit. There’s some dodgy horsey porn going on throughout as Dobbin is showered and saddled up by a hirsute hunk-a-chunk with Brit stalking him, while wearing suitable polo attire. Mostly it’s like some strange trailer for Danielle Steele’s next novel and it finishes just like one of those page-turners, with Brit tromping off into the sunset with her studmuffin while some other prick in primary looks a bit miffed. An odd video accompanying an instantly forgettable track which of course will be a huge hit. Watch it by clicking here.
(Clare Lydon)
