A new experimental hip-hop crew chooses to televise its revolution, James Vincent McMorrow finds comfort from the bottom of a swimming pool, De La Soul dedicate an entire website to an interactive joint and more, in week 27 of Best Lyric Vids.
clipping. – ‘Wriggle‘
The text could be much clearer, but the method is tried and true, utilizing the core VHS core essential vibes of the modern YouTube era in the most meta analogue of ways, a locked shot of an old tube television trying its damnedest to follow along with this new experimental hip-hop crew’s mission to werk it like it’s 1991 colliding with 2020 on a mission to ‘wriggle’, inadvertently gaining some serious traction on the Death Grips universe:
Local Natives – ‘Fountain of Youth‘
The payoffs are few and far between, but if you weather the strobing, ROY-G-BIV simplicity of the brunt of Local Natives new dabble in anthemic indie-pop, the whirling reel of golden skulls and wolf figurines feel like moments of clarity on a pot brownie trip, that of which, if you’re going to write a song about being forever young, is a good weapon of choice:
James Vincent McMorrow – ‘Rising Water‘
A teared out widescreen crop provides the dimensions for this palpitating new James Blake-ian inner turmoil cut from the Ireland import. Shot from the bottom of an empty pool on an overcast day, the text, although a pretty boring white font overlay, is all claustrophobic muscle perfect for the mood, morphing into a drum-machine cruiser about finding good vibes in spite of the bad ones that tend to stink up the joint:
De La Soul – ‘Pain‘ ft. Snoop Dogg
The interactive video never ceases to be a treat. Double the case with this new joint from De La Soul’s return to form. It has its own website. It’s a crude scroller cut from the tech of Atari yesteryear, but everybody’s got a keyboard and can thus navigate this little human dodging verses from Snoop and the De La crew waxing poetic about all the knowledge of the various meanings of pain they’ve picked up over the years: [LISTEN]
The Civil Wars – ‘Dust to Dust‘
One more piano fill shy of a Glen Hansard–Markéta Irglová Once lover’s lament replica it may be, but the chemistry’s done right, as its characters dance around a fire built for burning baggage. Likewise with the stark, white chalk scrawl narrative drawn before the viewer’s eyes:
