With all of the music videos released in November (everything from Cee-Lo Green's Magic Moment songs to Wiz Khalifa's "The Bluff," Alt-J's "Fitzpleasure" to Ed Sheeran's "Give Me Love," and Walk off the Earth's "Red Hands" to Rihanna's "Diamonds") it made it very easy to see the difference between a great video that you can watch on repeat ("Red Hands") and one that need not ever waste your time again (*cough* "The Bluff").
December, on the other hand, has given us a slew of great videos, with Jessie Ware's "Sweet Talk," Walk off the Earth's "Gang of Rhythm," and The Killers' "Miss Atomic Bomb" and "Here With Me" (though they still need to make a video for "Heart of a Girl"). With all of the great videos that were coming out this month, I was beginning to wonder how I was going to explain the greatness of Grey's newest video (released on the 11th and mentioned [shortly] here) in relation to all of the other really great videos; then Taylor Swift released her video for "I Knew You Were Trouble" on the 14th.
I've always loved the songs which Skylar Grey was featured in, but never really fell for any of her own songs; until now. "C'mon Let Me Ride" is amazing. The song and the video are so greatly satirical (with lyrics like "I'm only fucking with you, fuck you for thinking it's true" and clips of plastic surgery gone wrong) that I cannot get enough of it and, with Eminem as the executive producer on Grey's new album (and his vocals on this single), the album is going to be nothing less than great. Not everyone is going to like the song, but not everyone understands satire; just enjoy the fact that Grey's voice is just as great as always and that Eminem sounds like he did before Proof was killed and all his songs became sad.
There's something about Swift's video for "I Knew You Were Trouble" that makes me sad, or maybe it's just uncomfortable; like the type of uncomfortable I feel when long haired Pitt is rambling on about being high in that Chanel commercial. Taylor Swift spends two minutes talking and trying to sound deep while a guitar and some 'ominous tones' are played in the background, then completely ruins the punk look she was going for by introducing dub step and pop lyrics (in the three remaining minutes of the video) that sound completely disjunct with whatever image she was trying to create in the first two minutes. Swift tries to act 'punk' by putting herself in a dingy bathroom and a bar fight, but it just comes off as awkward and uncomfortable because this pop princess is never going to find herself in those places (unless she starts doing hard core drugs because she becomes depressed when she realizes that she can't break out of her squeaky clean image and that her career may be done by the time she's thirty... Okay, this sounds mean; I swear, I usually like Taylor Swift). The whole thing comes off as tired and uncomfortable because it looks like she's trying to pull some Cyrus "Can't Be Tamed" scenario, except that she is just not as cool as Miley Cyrus and can't pull it off; the end result is a mess of a video and an acting performance that is more awkward than Swift's performance in "You Belong With Me".
Everything aside, watch "C'mon Let Me Ride," "Miss Atomic Bomb," and "Gang of Rhythm" on repeat and act like "I Knew You Were Trouble" was never filmed (and that the lyric video for Yellowcard's "Awakening" was the only video made for the song).
- E
