Today's Pick

The indie-pop artist Ingrid Michaelson just premiered her new less thigh-centric video for "Parachute," exclusively on Entertainment Weekly. The song she co-penned and former Girls Aloud member Cheryl Cole, who had a huge hit with in the U.K. Now she's recorded her own version as a stand-alone track. "The song is about love. It's about true love. It's about having somebody who won't let you hit the ground basically, so no matter how sad you get or how hard things are in your life, you have this person in your life that will always float you to the ground safely," the New York City native explained.
With her piano-fueled songwriting, witty wordplay, and slight vocal vibrato, Michaelson carries the tradition of the female singer/songwriter into the 21st century. Befitting a musician of the digital age, Michaelson first gained wide exposure through spots on TV soundtracks, including "Grey's Anatomy" and "One Tree Hill." She released her most recent album, "Everybody," last August. But one standalone track she co-penned, "Parachute," took an unusual detour, becoming a European pop hit for Cole earlier this year. "It didn't feel like something I could put out because it was so poppy, [so] we shipped it off for people to take a gander and see who would pick it up," Michaelson says of the song, which eventually made its way to Cole's camp.
Michaelson glams it up in a way we haven't seen before, complete with Princess Leia braids and fake eyelashes out to there. The video, directed by Adria Petty, follows Michaelson, who rockets into space, and somehow she ends up in the belly of the planet, wrapped up in the deep roots of the one plant growing on a planet. The plant thrives, as we hope the relationship does. It's one of those videos that has nothing to do with the song, but it's fun to try to decipher what the heck is going on. Kind of like Goldfrapp's "Rocket" except, oh yeah, Allison Goldfrapp is on a rocket on that one. But as Michaelson sings here, she doesn't need a parachute.
"I'm very happy with where I am, but I'm really getting bored to tears with the whole singer-songwriter thing," Michaelson tells Spinner. "I've done everything I can in that realm. That's why 'Parachute' is really good for me," she says of her newly-released digital single. "It's really poppy and I don't want to say balls in an interview, but it's got more balls. It has more power. It feels good. It feels strong." As far as inspiration, Michaelson is looking to iconoclasts such as Imogen Heap and St. Vincent. "They fuse pop with singer-songwriting, something that's got meat on its bones," she says. "Not to dis my previous work, I love what I've done; I'm just itching to do something out of my comfort zone. If people don't like it and it's a big failure, well, then I failed and I'll try something else."