Video Resurrected The Radio Star

...or how to stick with the song and forget the video ever existed.


1. Arctic Monkeys, Crying Lightning (2009)
Directed by Richard Ayoade

Don't get me wrong. The idea is very nice: the guys at sea in a boat, the storm, and the figures that rise from the sea (and prove to be the guys themselves)... but for God's sake, it all looks like a bad video game! The sea and the storm are so unnatural! It could have been so much better.


2. Blondie, The Tide Is High (1980)
Directed by David Mallet

Oh, a classic. But that doesn't make it better than it is. Those fishes swimming in the water near the windows are completely out of picture. Not to mention Darth Vader. Look, I know it was the "Star Wars" era... but everything has a limit. Apparently, they didn't realise this. The only good thing in all this crap is (as always) Debbie Harry. Looking at her almost made me forget how awful the video is. Almost.


3. HIM, Wings of a Butterfly (2006)
Directed by Meiert Avis

Uhm, what we were saying before about "a bad video game"... Double it. Okay, I know we are in the digital era and stuff, but if you want to make a video that's based on image, at least make it look good, if you can't give it some sort of a hidden meaning (no, the heartagram does not count as hidden meaning).


4. Hotel Persona, To the Light (2008)
Directed by Wolfgang Jaiser

Most of people praise this video, saying it's great because it's so simple. Oh wow. It doesn't show anything else than the faces of Olsdal, Solo and Amen. And them singing. So inspiring... yeah, right. You know, I could actually have made this one too, in my apartment. But of course, my video would have probably been accused to be shitty, as I'm not Hotel Persona. It's too bad, the song is really nice.


5. Placebo, The Never-Ending Why (2009)
Directed by Champagne Valentine

It's really sad when you think these guys used to have beautiful and inspired videos. This video is presented on Placebo's official site as being "based around a semi-surreal narrative mixing Asian styled puppet animation with hyper coloured 3D design." Let me translate this for you: "We were too tired to make a good video, so we called a few kindergarten kids, we asked them to draw a boy, a girl, a scary creature and then many-many people, then we put an ugly colour in the background and made everything three-dimensional, and then expect for fans to find a meaning in all this stuff". Good job... not.