Twin Shadow, "Five Seconds"

So the new Twin Shadow video, which had a big public debut in Times Square yesterday, is very disappointing. The song is so good, with those amazing bell synths, stolen from that old Naked Eyes gem. I don’t know why they (George Lewis, Jr. and director Keith Musil) didn’t use better lighting in the middle of a dark forest. You can’t see anything. (Maybe it looked better on giant LED screens in Times Square?) Or, more disturbingly, why they chose to go all Braveheart on the viewer. It seems they’ve confused violence with heroism. Or even just, excitement. It’s like “the new video for Killer Mike’s Big Beast.” Another mini-movie with grand ambition, also for a terrific song, but also ruined (for me, at least, and maybe some other old people who are turning into their prudish parents) by graphic violence. I love that song, and the cinematography in the video is stunning. But I will never watch it again. Because I do not like seeing people getting their tongues cut out of their mouths. Not if it doesn’t go towards some worthy point. I’ll defend the torture scene in Reservoir Dogs til the day I die. But these videos are not that.