Float Like a Schizo, Sting Like the Elderly
It’s refreshing to see a deluge of female singers from JayMay to Anna Ternheim who scale back their own physical beauty in the presentation of their music. For Lykke Li, one can easily see why the presentation works to counteract both her youth and coy, cutesy vocals. Personally, I don’t mind the twee caste to her voice or even the toybox clatter of the song’s random percussion. If I were an artist worried about my image, I don’t think you could do much better than this video’s whimsy and menace. I included the Deborah Harry image, because, minus the Giger sadism, Lykke Li’s beauty has the same blown back, tight, restrained, almost hypoallergenic cleanliness. Her eye contact throughout the video is complicated; there’s a palpable caginess in the way she looks into the camera. At times, punching her shoulder forward, it can be downright aggressive (she’s sometimes throwing actual punches). But couched in her flowing clothes and kung fun pop and locking, she simply lights up the screen with confidence, something frequently done literally by framing her face as the peak point of light.
Honestly, the video is almost too packed with great images, as if directed by Tarsem Singh trying to beat a deadline. Director Mattias Montero manages to actually work joyfully and provocatively with surrealism, a video tack that is so overused as to make actual reality the only alienating image remaining. Populated by mental patients swimming on hospital (or maybe gymnasium) floors and old people standing open mouthed in some mix of the Pixies “Here Comes Your Man” video and the church zombies of 28 Days, it’s a rowdy and joyful ode the beat of one’s own drummer. The drummer, in this case, happens to be a frosted female bodybuilder with a Zorro mask on, reinforcing Li’s “don’t fuck with me just because I got a sweet set of pipes” mantra. Because of it’s density, it’s endlessly entertaining to replay; each time I watch the video I notice something about the life breathed into office casual wardrobe, some sexy gender bending or a flash of a scene that evokes The Shining. All in all, a great video that rises above many would-be comers in style and technical proficiency.
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