For today’s music video of the day, we have Public Service Broadcasting’s Night Mail.
Both the song and the video were inspired by a 1936 British documentary called Night Mail. The documentary (clips of which are seen in the video) was a 21-minute film about a night in the lives of the London to Glasgow nightly postal train and the people who staffed it.
All in all, it’s a nicely atmospheric video from one of my favorite groups.
Enjoy!
For today’s music video of the day, I’m taking a little break from all the holiday music to share the video for Tove Lo’s Cycles. The song is about being trapped in a never-ending relationship loop, a theme that is perfectly captured in this video by one long take of Tove Lo performing while the world spins around her.
Enjoy!
From Denmark comes today’s music video of the day.
The video inspired by this dream-like Chirstmas song is both beautiful and oddly disturbing. It’s apparently the story of two fairies, one good and one bad. It’s also the story of a dancing bear and who doesn’t appreciate a dancing bear? Unfortunately, things don’t really work out that well for the bear but nature gets revenge. The fact that the entire story takes place on a stage only serves to make things even more surreal. Whenever I see anything strange happen on a stage, I automatically start to think about the Club Silencio sequence from Mulholland Drive.
Anyway, enjoy!
Personally, I absolutely adore the Taylor Swift version of this song but sadly, Taylor’s never done an official music video for it.
As for this version, it features everyone’s favorite Swedish CGI creation saving Santa Claus from …. something. I guess Santa somehow managed to lock himself up in his workshop or something. I don’t know. I’m also not sure what exactly the Crazy Frog is supposed to be. Apparently, he was originally known as “The Annoying Thing” and his creator is adamant that he is neither a frog nor is he crazy.
But, at least he was able to save Santa.
Enjoy!
For today’s music video of the day, we continue with the holiday theme that’s run through most of the recent music video posts. We also continue with the Lindsey Stirling theme. I wasn’t initially planning on making this Lindsey Stirling week on the Shattered Lens but, now that I think about it, why not?
This video finds Lindsey performing in the snow. There’s a chance that it might snow in my home state of Texas this weekend. I certainly hope so. Of course, when we say “it might snow” in Texas, what we actually mean is that it might sleet. And, if it does snow, we’ll probably get like an inch at most. But still …. snow is snow!
Enjoy!
I was planning on just picking Christmas videos up until the 25th of December but then I came across this video of Lindsey Stirling and Pete Hollens performing the main theme from Skyrim Elder Scrolls and I simply knew that I had to pick it.
This is for Arleigh.
Enjoy!
I am a totally unapologetic fan of Lindsey Stirling. I imagine some of that is because I wish I could play the violin. It’s an instrument that has always fascinated me and I’ve always regretted that I never learned how to play it. I also regret that I never learned how to play the piano or really any musical instrument. Back when I was in the third grade, I had a music teacher who told me that I had the worst singing voice she had ever heard and that I needed to pay more attention in class. Oh well!
Anyway, this is a really nice and heartfelt performance of Silent Night. Silent Night is actually one of my favorite Christmas songs. I certainly prefer it to that one where everyone’s singing about the bells.
This video was filmed at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.
Enjoy!
If Sucker Punch had taken place during the Christmas season, one could very easily imagine this video as being a scene in the film. It just needs a giant ninja and Scott Glenn offering up words of pithy wisdom.
That said, what this song and this video do so well and what I love about them is that it provides a whole new spin to a very familiar song. Does the Grinch now own a casino or an Old West saloon? Is the Grinch now a gangster? And what exactly is the Grinch’s relationship with Sabrina Carpenter? This video leaves us with much to ponder during the holiday season.
This video was directed by Joshua Schultz, who has also directed videos for Juliet Simms and Haley Reinhart. According to the imdb, he’s currently in pre-production for a film called The Fog.
Enjoy!
Happy Holidays! Trust Linsdey Stirling to elevate one of the worst Christmas songs ever written with an energetic performance and an entertaining music video.
(I should admit that I have a personal bias against Santa Baby, one that goes back to my dancing days. Let’s just say that falling flat on your ass in front of a huge crowd of people while dressed like one of Santa’s helpers and while Santa Baby plays in the background is not necessarily one of my happiest holiday memories.)
Enjoy!
In 1986, David Byrne of Talking Heads directed his very first feature film. True Stories took place in the fictional town in Virgil, Texas and, as Byrne himself put it, it was “a project with songs based on true stories from tabloid newspapers. It’s like 60 Minutes on acid.”
Some people love True Stories. I am not one of them. However, not surprisingly, the film did have a killer soundtrack. The best known song to come off of the True Stories soundtrack was Wild Wild Life. The video for Wild Wild Life takes place at what appears to be a karaoke bar, where different performers lip sync to the song while dressed up as their favorite performers. One person is dressed up like Billy Idol. Another does Madonna. Jerry Harrison imitates Prince. Be sure to keep an eye out for a young John Goodman, who co-starred in True Stories and who damn near steals this video with his energetic performance.
Wild Wild Life subsequently won the award for Best Group Video at the MTV Music Video Awards.
Through the Shattered Lens