Today's Pick

Arcade Fire released the inspirational and psychedelic music video for the poignant gay rights anthem "We Exist," by using their six-plus minutes of screen time to tell a haunting story about a young man’s struggle to come out in a small town, as we find "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" star Andrew Garfield plays a whole different kind of superhero by taking on one of the more unexpected, affecting roles of his career: a blonde-haired transgender woman in wig and dress, seeking a shred of solid ground.
"We Exist," conveys a message of self-empowerment and equality, comes from Canadian alternative rock band's fourth studio album, "Reflektor," which debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart last October. This song was inspired by frontman Win Butler becoming a father, and also by an encounter with a gay teenager in Jamaica. The song was described by Butler as "about a gay kid talking to his dad" and coming out to his straight father. Introducing the song onstage, Butler also said that "the right to marry anyone you want is a human rights issue."
For the video, Garfield acts as this kid, who is trying to be himself in a world that won’t let him. Arcade Fire isn't quite done with the sensation of its headlining Coachella music festival set, judging by footage from its new video. The band shot the clip on and offstage when headlining this year's festival. It stars Garfield in an eerie white and pink drag costume as he hits up a roadhouse bar, where he defends himself against a hoard of violent drunks and embraces his destiny and dances up a solitary storm. Arcade Fire’s video is dedicated to those still looking to find their true self, even if the world doesn't want them to.
The clip starts off melancholy, with Garfield watching himself as he shaves his head and tries on a bra, eventually ending with him in tears. As the sun rises, he strolls down to the bar, where men leer aggressively at him and ask him to dance. After being escorted to the dance floor, he's groped, knocked to the ground and kicked in the chest. But what starts out as a hate crime ends with joy as Garfield's character to strike some Flashdance moves and walk through a tunnel into the real crowd at Coachella music festival and strikes a number of badass poses on stage with the band. It's a tense, riveting video that adds even greater depth to the already meaningful song's lyrics and throbbing synth-rock arrangement.

St. Vincent (also known as Annie Clark) strikes out against conformity in her dystopian new video for "Digital Witness," the second single from her forthcoming self-titled fourth album, arrives on February 25th and the same day she kicks off an extensive U.S. tour at New York's Terminal 5. "The video shows St. Vincent commanding a surreal and futuristic world in which action is synchronized, replicated and repeated," according to a press release. It's a stylish, bizarre, cool video befitting the stylish, bizarre, cool song.
Annie Clark has always been a quirky character, so imagine what life would be like if St. Vincent were running it, and her new video offered a vaguely dystopian glimpse at just such a world. But the singer-songwriter-guitarist is another rare artist with the savvy and poise to pull such a move off. Apparently, St. Vincent likes everything nice and matchy-matchy, with flat tones and simple lines consuming the landscape and interiors. If the color scheme isn't unnerving enough, Clark's unflinching stillness and her Dr. Seuss-styled hairdo make you wonder when exactly she's going to snap.
"Digital Witness" questions the concept of identity in the selfie era. "I wanted to make a party record you could play at a funeral," Clark said last year. You'll fall in love, and you'll be staring at a screen. The brassy, dance-y track very much reflected the ample time Clark has recently spent collaborating with David Byrne. Lockstep drudgery meets bright colors in Brooklyn musician's latest video, which looks just like a window into Clark's anxious vision, all conformist synchronization and dystopian austerity. The result is a layer of optimism, in tune with the song's funky horn riffs, amid Clark's surreal future world.
Clark teamed up with director Chino Moya to update Fritz Lang's classic silent film "Metropolis." The new video builds off of that jittery anxiety with a fleshed-out narrative that positions St. Vincent as the unblinking, truth-telling, shock-haired madwoman in a land of conformity while singing over the deceptively joyous horn blasts, glossing over the song's creeping paranoia. But where Lang's world is all moody black-and-white, Clark and Moya paint a surreal, pastel-hued future soundtracked by St. Vincent's funky, horn-infused dancey track. Watch St. Vincent's gloriously coiffed "Digital Witness" dystopia below.

MS MR have returned to the small screen via their media-critiquing brilliant VHS-themed video for "Think of You," the latest cut to be lifted from the alt-pop group's debut album, "Secondhand Rapture." The promotional cycle behind Brooklyn pop group MS MR's "Secondhand Rapture" apparently started many years ago on public access television, at least according to the retro-styled "Think of You" video, which seems to have a particularly intense effect on a little boy who is watching. MS MR are definitely spoiling their fans with such an unbeatable flow of impressive releases - this time.
The love-spurned New Yorkers' dark, entrancing debut album, "Secondhand Rapture," had its share of deceptively epic moments, but the chorus on the get-over-him track "Think Of You" may be the album's most grand pop gesture. Now the song has gotten the video treatment, and while it's not as unsettling as the videos for duo's previous singles, "Hurricane" and "Fantasy," it's just as visually arresting and off-kilter. "Think Of You," finds some middle ground between the bizarre and the nostalgic: public access television has never looked so neon.
Directed by BRTHR, the accompanying music video that starts off pretty tame and transitions into a colorful splash of vintage madness and it includes one flaming keyboard, one creepy little kid, and one guy with a TV for a head smashing a TV. The clip finds a young boy spending his afternoon in front of a dial-driven TV set, peeping pastiches to Bob Ross's The Joy of Painting, spandex-heavy fitness programs and even a headbanging send-up of Wayne's World. Also on the menu is a televised performance of MS MR's new, or is it old, single.
We're brought back to old-school public TV as they perform on what looks like an 80's VHS-era game show. vocalist Lizzy Plapinger and producer Max Hershenow performing the venom-spewing kiss-off tune on a retro television's fictional talk show. The young boy watches from his living room before he's literally sucked into the TV to enjoy the song in the flesh, becoming one with the colorful, trippy, VHS-like short. The whole thing has a David Lynch-meets-Tim and Eric feel. If you've been missing the old days, you'll be pleased. Watch the video below to see how well the song and setup actually work together. You can give it a peep down below.

Janelle Monáe is back and spotlighting her hyper-stylish in her new tasty black-and-white schemed video for the equally impressive single, "Q.U.E.E.N." the first single from Monáe's upcoming sophomore effort, "The Electric Lady," expected for a fall release. Channeling the retro swagger of Elvis's "Jailhouse Rock" video, the 27-year-old soul-funk pioneer jams while surrounded by six dancing ladies rocking bold black-striped looks in this old school soul feeds new school funk.
The powerful Erykah Badu-assisted jam, "Q.U.E.E.N.," is an irresistible art-funk strut, and also, is terrific - a punk cabaret groover that drops back on Badu's verse to highlight an incredible, funky bass lick and then makes a string-heavy transition into Monáe's unexpectedly relentless rap. It's exactly the type of stylishly futuristic and playfully absurd aesthetic we've come to expect from Monáe, and the dystopian intro perfectly sets the tone for the defiant and quirky jam that follows. Its sexy, slinky, impossibly funky grooves demanded a next-level video, and the forward-thinking Monáe has certainly delivered.
Directed by Alan Ferguson, "Q.U.E.E.N." and takes place in an alternate future, the clip depicts Monáe and Erykah as frozen human sculptures in what could easily pass for an interactive Soho pop-up art gallery. As "Q.U.E.E.N."'s funk-tinged bass line kicks in, the sculptures flicker to life with Monáe twerking in her chair and singing about haters and their snap judgements: "I can't believe all of the things they say about me/ Walk in the room they throwing shade left to right." The clip gives off a very artistic, grown woman, sophisticated fun type of feeling.
The funky Alan Ferguson-directed clip, an absolutely deadly early-'60s mod mook, and explores a witty concept, sees hipster artist Monáe teams with Badu where the two star as a museum exhibit comes to life. Instead of her predictable black-and-white tuxedo, Monáe throws on some Givenchy heels and shows off her shapely figure and  some crispy dance steps while claiming her QUEEN-status. Backed by an aesthetically stunning bevy of mod '60s dancers, Monáe finally sidles up to a sexy look Badu, who's looking terribly regal in all white and gold. Together, they sing about female equality and loving oneself despite social pressure.

After a decade-long musical silence, the English musician David Bowie is back to wake you up with a blast of electric guitars by unveiling a new video for his new introspective ballad, "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)," the second track from the legend's comeback twenty-fourth studio album, "The Next Day," due on March 12. The Thin White Duke's fascination with fame, constellations and himself collide in this brand new clip that is a cross between "American Horror Story" and a study in gender with more of an suburban nightmare than the quintessential dreamscape, and it is fun to watch.
The song starts with a slow, heavy backbeat and guttural guitar that dissolve into a propulsive bassline topped with shards of guitar and atmospheric synthesizers, for an effect reminiscent of vintage Bowie. It's a swinging, urgent rocker with an edgy little lead guitar motif and the kind of swaggering one-note declamatory vocal Bowie has been pulling off since the days of Ziggy Stardust. The track's driving forward momentum is counterbalanced by the melodic sweetness of Bowie's own "ooh ooh" backing vocals, a sheen of swimming strings and a Motown-style bridge.
"The Stars (Are Out Tonight)" is Bowie once more playing with the word star as an object of fame and something that lives and burns forever. "Stars are never sleeping," he sings on this new song. "They'll burn you with their radiant smiles, trap you with their beautiful eyes." Though we think of Bowie having many sounds, there is still a classic Bowie that pops up so often. A Bowie filled with an uplifting swagger. Admittedly that's not that weird compared to what Bowie's done in the past, but it's certainly a lot more warped than the somewhat straight-up rocker that the single is.
It's very 1980s, and conjures an entropic underworld inhabited by tortured souls and omnipotent beings. The softly-lit and quietly menacing clip, directed by Floria Sigismondi is about capturing "a twenty first century moment in its convergence of age, gender and the normal/celebrity divide," and is certainly a striking piece of work - dealing with androgyny and musing on the meaning of fame, and illuminating the meaning of the lyrics. In a flip of reality, Bowie and English actress Tilda Swinton play a happily suburban couple whose normal lives are turned upside down with the arrival of a "celebrity" creepy couple who have some twisted tricks up their sleeves and abuse their tranquility both physical and emotional in exactly the way you would hope, only makes it better.

Natasha Khan, known by her stage name as Bat for Lashes, is ending 2012 on a high note. After releasing her third album, "The Haunted Man," in October to critical acclaim, the 33-year-old British singer returns post-apocalypse and gets mildly creepy to deliver a new coinciding aesthetic video for the shivery song, "A Wall." This one tells a labyrinth-like modern fairy-tale love story in a house party setting.
The haunting goes in all directions on Bat for Lashes' magnificent 2012 album, "The Haunted Man." The specter of war haunts the male characters, but "your ghosts have got me, too," Khan sings at one point, and on the cover she literally carries a man's weight on her shoulders. It should go without saying the record is haunting for the listener, too. "A Wall," a vocoder-inhabited electro-pop song with synth work by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek, puts even more of the burden on Khan's lyrical protagonist, a situation that comes surreally to life in yet another spellbinding video from the album.
“A Wall” comes lensed once again by director Noel Paul, whose muse is clearly Bat for Lashes. This time around, however, Paul's got her in an intriguing blond-wigged, getting a little too saucy and extravagantly drunk at a strangely sedate party with actor Harry Treadaway, whose slight figure looks quite a bit like that of the man on album's cover. He's wearing something furry, and he's clearly somehow unwell. Haunted, even. Watch Khan roll around with a male furry in this cute, but semi-twisted love story that could have been easily shot at the Overlook Hotel from 'The Shining.' Surreal party, labyrinth and all.
A labyrinth-like hedge, through which the two fail to escape, subtly evokes the song's hook: "Where you see a wall, I see a door." Meanwhile, Khan nuzzles her uncanny man, whose odd attire also distantly recalls the fallen angel in R.E.M.'s classic, Gabriel García Márquez-inspired "Losing My Religion" video. It's not giving away too much to point out Khan looks happier, and more like herself, by the video's end - the wig comes off! - but all in all it's a vibrantly creative, beguiling look at the things we carry into our relationships. And how we keep each other from falling down.

Indie rock band Florence + The Machine have already unveiled one video for their powerful tune, "Lover to Lover," the darkly stripped-back live clip that surfaced in January, but the English powerhouse went in a much more cinematic direction when releasing an updated set of visuals, which premiered last Wednesday on Nowness. The gospel-tinged blastoff appears on the band's 2011 hit sophomore set, "Ceremonials," and is scheduled to be released on December 4th as their fifth single.
This song finds lead singer Florence Welch singing of hopping from "room to room, bed to bed." It was inspired by '60s Soul numbers such as "I Heard It Through The Grapevine." She explained to Mojo magazine: "It's me saying, 'I want to make a song just like this.' I was listening to lots of Marvin Gaye and lots of Otis Redding, and 'Lover To Lover' was me wanting to make a song I could imagine a male Soul singer doing. I was listening to a lot of Sam and Dave, as well." The arena-scale Motown of "Lover to Lover," is reminiscent of the Eurythmics at their most soulful.
Helmed by director Vincent Haycock, the dramatic new clip features shots of Welch in the throes of a tumultuous and disintegrating relationship with up-and-coming Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn as their lovers' quarrel escalates into something a little more darkly dramatic. "It was completely improvised," she said. "I had to think about things that I was actually angry and upset about. It is cathartic, but you have to literally let yourself go. Ben is so sweet and accommodating - afterwards he gave me this massive hug and made me feel so comfortable."
Beginning in a drab Los Angeles house and building to a cathartic gospel frenzy, the romance ends as the lovesick heroine disappears amid mist into the Pacific Ocean. The baroque pop chanteuse Welch playing a put-upon housewife who echoes the track's heart-aching refrain, and performs a Tale of American Heartbreak who sets a fire burning possessions and seeking her salvation and gets swallowed up by the ocean in a washed-out California beach town and according to Welch, the shoot was an emotional one: "It was the most intense experience because we shot the whole day before; I went back to the hotel, slept for three hours, woke up and dove into the sea."

Florence And The Machine have posted their new video for "Never Let Me Go," the fourth single from English indie rock band's latest second studio album "Ceremonials," an album absolutely packed with big, grand ballads. In its new video, a newly gothified frontwoman Florence Welch indulges in a bit of ice-rink romance, and things don't turn out too well. Upon the release of the video, critics praised Welch's gothic look and the video's dark atmosphere.
Musically, "Never Let Me Go" is a downtempo power and piano ballad with elements of R&B and pop music. It has a piano-led instrumentation accompanied by thumping drums while backing vocals repeatedly sing "never let me go" throughout the song. Many critics noted similarities between the song and materials by other artists including Enya, Evanescence and Ryan Tedder-produced songs. The song received mostly positive reviews by critics who praised Welch's vocals and its balladry nature.
Lyrically, the theme of the song revolves around the sea and the ocean, and the song also talks about sin and redemption. Speaking about the song, Welch told Digital Spy, "The gospel thing comes from my obsession with hymns. I'm drawn to anything that has a hymnal quality, be it Spiritualized or dusty old albums by Georgian choirs." Welch takes us to the dark side in her latest video, and this isn't the video for you if you like closure and certainty.
The promo was directed by Tabitha Denholm and stars 'The Twilight Saga' actor Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Welch's love interest. The clip match the almost supernatural tone of the song and sees Welch in a black hoodie as she enjoys a good time with a boy she met in a dark place. The pair together skating and shots of a dirty water trickling down Welch's face and hands are shown. The joy ends as soon as it starts, leading her to be covered in black gooey substance, and pouring from her mouth before she appears to melt away to nothing.

Florence + the Machine have unveiled a dark music video this past Friday, for "No Light No Light," the second single from English indie rock band's new sophomore effort "Ceremonials." The frontwoman Florence Welch and her band have landed themselves in hot water after allegations their latest video promotes racial stereotypes and demonizes a religion, The music criticism from around the blogosphere debate over suggestions that it has a racist subtext.
"No Light, No Light" was the first song penned by Welch and Isabella Summers for the album during the tour in Amsterdam. The song begins with lyrics talking about fighting with snakes, and it was one of the songs where Welch sets aside her usual flighty, dreamy, gothy lyrical go-to's ghosts, graveyards, devils, angels, myths, drowning for something a bit more personal. Musically, the song exudes utter strength; lyrically, Welch is on her knees.
Backed by a live choir, Welch showed off her vocal prowess as she rocked out to "No Light, No Light" and she told NME: "Most of my influences have been male singers and the people I grew up watching perform were all these garage punk bands who went to Camberwell Art College with male singers who were almost trying to exorcise the audience. So when I write songs like 'No Light, No Light', I'm thinking about the rhythm and the chant and the aggression rather than the melodic mellifluousness of it."
The video, directed by Iceland-based duo Arni & Kinski, seems suggested a flirtation with dark magic, but any fascination Welch has with the occult is no longer the stuff of Manor Party games. There's some seriously life-threatening juju going on and as we watch Welch belt out the song from a skyscraper's rooftop, while elsewhere - perhaps far out of the range of her cannon-blast voice - a man painted black is convulsing through the steps of a voodoo ritual. The clip touches on the fine line between spiritual ecstasy and reckless abandon, is exploring a territory between Christianity and voodoo spirituality. It does not shy away from matching the music's melodramatic intensity.

Following that recent weekend remix, Florence and the Machine is once again dolling out a masquerade-set clip for their the newly released gloriously uplifting track "Shake It Out," the lead single proper from Florence Welch and her mysterious mechanical band's upcoming sophomore effort "Ceremonials." Welch became a bigger-than-indie darling when their debut album "Lungs" burst into unlikely mainstream success. In the nearly five minute technicolor blast, Welch splits her time mourning and dancing her way through a stately psychedelic costume party at a masquerade ball.
This gospelly pop tune is about having a hangover and wanting to shake it out, and it features a churchy organ and concludes with Welch roaring, "It's hard to dance with the devil on your back. So shake him off!" Welch explained: "I wanted to just shake something out, shake out these regrets, shake out these things that haunt you. It was one of those songs that came in about half an hour and when you've got a hangover, it is almost like a hangover cure. You're like, thank you!"
Given the track's bursting vocal moments, "Shake It Out" could have lent itself to something far more grandiose visually. But Florence and the Machine have kept it relatively low-key. Kind of. I'm using relatively very loosely here. The track's music video is still an over-the-top affair filled with Old World imagery and glitter-covered dresses and suits. But it's not quite as outrageous as it could have been, even if things do get really dramatic at times. I guess I was picturing something more arena-sized, though maybe that's because the track is so goddamn huge.
The video is as gorgeous and ethereal as the song itself, features Welch at a Shakespearian masked ball, dressed in a long red gown. She traded only a few of her Stevie Nicksian chiffon gowns for something a little wilder, tighter, for this Annie Lennox-directed clip. In it, the singer is equal parts naughty and nice as she cavorts between dancing, drinking, shaking it out and shrinking away during this fairy tale party. She flows between beautiful people in masquerade masks and drops in on a seance. This is easily one of Welch's best vocal performances to date, and the imagery will leave a mark on fans and aspiring fans to boot.

The Grammy Award winning singer Norah Jones debuted The Fall's fairly non-rock "Young Blood" at Apple's "Rock And Roll" product conference in last September. Now iTunes offered the world premiere of her music video for "Young Blood" featured on her 2009 release critically-acclaimed, platinum-selling fourth studio album "The Fall" on digitally only. The video was directed by Toben Seymour, a British fantastical director and puppeteer who has also worked with Moby, will.i.am fan site, and Kanye West.
Jones is one of the most popular contemporary jazz and jazz-influenced singers of our time. Unlike the one-woman-and-her-sailing-brownstone vibe of "Chasing Pirates," these frames include Mondrian-like screen divisions populated with plenty of extras and set pieces literalizing the lyrics. The video makes creative use of split-screen storytelling by splicing in footage of Ms. Jones, alongside a literal interpretation of the songs lyrics.
Jones will be making her first-ever appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show on April 22. A performance on PBS Soundstage will air later this spring. Jones is currently on a North American tour in support of "The Fall," and has been receiving rave reviews all along the way. She has added several major festivals to her schedule throughout the summer including Celebrate Brooklyn, Bonnaroo, and Lilith Fair, as well as a run of European tour dates beginning in late June. NPR Music just simulcast Jones' performance at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia yesterday. The concert will be streamed live, podcast and archived at NPR Music, and will be broadcast live on WXPN.