Were dangerously close to Election Day, so things are naturally antagonistic to a certain orange cheeto in a suit, with another hilarious cryptic shot from El Vy and a faux-news broadcast from Joseph Arthur. Otherwise, Swedish metal vets Witchery make October proud, electro-pop crew The Naked and Famous dispatch from the bedroom and more in week 42 of the year’s Best Lyric Vids.
El Vy – ‘Are These My Jets?’
A combination of the cryptic and absurd echoes the ridiculousness of the orange one in question. By the time Matt Berninger gets to his twisted Republican meets socialist affirmation that everyone in America will have access to walrus dick jewelry, the point’s already been made. We are in a sad state of affairs. But you knew that already. Which is why Berninger live action role-playing of a flying walrus shooter game makes makes perfect nonsense:
Witchery – ‘Nosferatu’
Twenty-year Sweden thrashers double down on October with a throat-growler of a romp through Nosferatu lore. As is customary with black metal these days, particularly stuff steeped in the underworld, the video rides the demonic symbol, cosmic train, in which viewer must navigate a web of ominous witchery marks that makes up their new album sleeve for forthcoming, In His Infernal Majesty’s Service.
The Naked and Famous – ‘Losing Our Control’
New Zealand’s cinematic electro-pop crew bathe some out of body domestic tension in blue and red. It’s not groundbreaking visual territory here, as a woman roams around barefoot in the middle of the night, partner soundly asleep, woman chasing those blue and red washes of light around the house, but it gets the the job done on a song about losing proverbial control:
Joseph Arthur – ‘The Campaign Song’
A collaboration with Spencer Tunick’s anti-Trump installation, Everything She Says Means Everything, weathered singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur roams around a concrete jungle with a 4:30 minute crunchy guitar attack on ‘Trump the chump’. Thankfully the rhymes get better as Arthur gets deeper into his verses, with bloody pig imagery and contortions of Trump’s stupid slogan, “Let’s Make America Great Again,” while the renegade news broadcast vibe seals the deal:
Green Day – ‘Say Goodbye’
Billie Joe Armstrong continues his narrative tirade against the oppressive powers that have come out of the woodwork in furious fashion this election season, this time going after the poisoning of kids in Flint, Michigan with their tap water fiasco, America’s disturbing police force swell even more abusive and tyrannical, wryly calling upon everyone to wave goodbye to any hope. Like all the videos for Revolution Radio, and thankfully unlike their awful album cover, their hired hand animation game is on point:
