Here are a collection of recommended music videos released this week, or sometime recently:
Black Light Dinner Party – “We Are Golden”
In addition to catchy songwriters, NYC electro-pop four-piece Black Light Dinner Party show themselves to be very visual-savvy, from this colorfully narrative music video for “We Are Golden” to the retro-styled video game on their web site. On both, their love for blue and purple pastels shows, which is an apt choice for a group so intent on dream-pop. That music tends to sound best during the fading sunset and early evening hours, so the setting for the video is right on. Add some pirate villains and a duo trying to escape, and you have something worthy of a full-length feature. Just wait ’til the purple droplets throw ’em into outer space!
Alex Anwandter – “Tormenta”
Singer/songwriter Alex Anwandter was the frontman for successful Chilean rockers Teleradio Donoso until their demise in 2010. Since then, Anwandter has used the time to explore his love for electronic pop. His solo efforts are very much in the vein of “Tormenta“, a gorgeously twinkling effort with stutter-step synth arpeggios and anthemic vocal overlays. The lush video is a tribute to love of all kinds, something that needs to be stressed in times of intolerance like this. Anwandter is a popular spokesperson for gay rights in Chile, and here he uses infectiously dreamy tunes and a well-shot music video to echo those sentiments. Regardless of its flavor, love is one of the most innately good things about human nature, and this is what the video projects.
Sally Shapiro – “If It Doesn’t Rain”
Sally Shapiro’s new album, Somewhere Else, is one of my favorite electronic-pop records of the year so far; her and producer Johan Agebjörn craft a sleek pop sound that borrows from Italo-disco and dance, all while balancing accessible pop sleekness with wintry soundscapes. One of its highlights is “If It Doesn’t Rain”, a powerful five-minute pop ballad that describes hopelessness without love, and a future hardly as bright as Shapiro’s twinkling synths. The track’s new video is wonderfully apt in its scenery, almost playing like a Swedish Christmas special with its snowflake-like crystals. It’s another success for the Swedish chanteuse.
