Minnesota underground hip-hop heroes, Atmosphere, go fishing for metaphors, an Indonesian teenager campaigns for thug life status, Green Day double down on the American (shooting) idiot psyche and more, in the 32nd week of the year’s Best Lyric Vids.
Green Day – ‘Bang Bang’
You have to give Billie Joe Armstrong credit for going from songs about masturbation to socio-political broadway rock operas. Likewise with this first single from LP12, Revolution Radio, that’s written from the perspective of a mass shooter. At least they’re trying to position themselves as relevant still. Any more aggro in the chord structure and this could easily be a Pearl Jam song. While the video is a refreshing blend of magazine-cut out clip art and perfect creepy kitsch for the subject matter:
Atmosphere – ‘Fishing Blues’ ft. The Grouch
Minneapolis underground heroes, Slug and Ant, push LP7, throwing all the chips in on this near four-minute fishing metaphor, that feels a lot like Lupe Fiasco‘s hip-hop ode to skateboarding, the duo drawing out the hook, line and sinker game into a slow-boat rocker of a want vs. need think-piece. The talking mounted fish in any other scenario would have been lame, but here it’s a pretty easy choice:
Rich Chigga – ‘Who That Be’
The Indonesian teen blew up with a some drill beats and a good sense humor, albeit hinged upon all the worst tropes of modern thug moron life, with viral sensation “Dat $tick.” “Who That Be” walks the same line, pairing his nerdy image with a rant about how hardcore he is. Garbage it may be, the video is an oddly funny subtle animation of the teenager in prime political poster meets glamor shot pose, blinking from time to time with a slow lyric scroll flanking the left-side:
Paper Route – ‘Chariots’
Nashville electro-pop crew have had some success working the television and movie circuit, some of their songs hitting various screens from (500) Days of Summer to One Tree Hill. All of that will make sense upon viewing this gladiator animation of a video, providing a decent parallel to their homegrown paper feel, and what it would feel like to exist in that world:
KC and the Sunshine Band – ‘We Belong Together’
Embracing the EDM side of the new disco era, love or hate the iconic “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty” crew, for those nostalgia seekers not ready to let go of the past, yet find their feet in the LGBTQ progressive future, here’s your just barely tolerable dance-floor thread-bump, complete with a vibrant, heartfelt montage of all peoples under the sun coexisting as they should be:
