IDLES and Michel Gondry? You better believe it.
Gondry, in case you forgot, has directed both videos (Daft Punk, Radiohead, The White Stripes) and films (including the mind-bending, Oscar-winning Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). So it’s fitting that he’d team up with the British rockers to produce a surreal clip for their latest single, “Model Village.”
The dance-punk tune tackles small-town thinking. “I hated growing up in a city that was really a town that was really a fishbowl. I left as soon as I could, only to realize the fishbowl didn’t exist…just the fish, and they’re everywhere,” IDLES singer Joe Talbot said in a statement.
“Michel’s work is handmade and it’s human and that’s something that our society pushes against: you need to be perfect,” he continued. “You need to look perfect and everything needs to be seamless and strong. But actually, vulnerability and naivety are strengths. To be vulnerable and to be naive is to have empathy. And so, to empathize with your adversaries and allow yourself to be naked on film or on record is a really strong thing to do. It liberates you and it also liberates your audience. That’s something that I hope that IDLES can do, and that Gondry’s been doing for years.”
IDLES’ Ultra Mono is out on Sept. 25 via Partisan Records. It features guest vocals from Jehnny Beth, Jamie Callum, and more.
Watch the video below:
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