"You Won't Believe What You'll Do"- The Disingenuousness of Pharrell's New Video

Before the excoriation and finger-wagging begins, I want to genuinely praise Pharrell Williams. Forget the legion of hits he's produced in the last 20 years with partner Chad Hugo as part of the Neptunes. In the past year alone he's lent his silky croon to colossal hits "Get Lucky" and "Blurred Lines," unleashed a firebreathing cleanup verse in "Move That Dope," manned the boards with Hans Zimmer for the Amazing Spider-Man 2 soundtrack and dominated the Billboard charts with the Oscar-nominated "Happy." If the time from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2014 was all we had to judge Pharrell on, his discography would still be unassailable. 

What Pharrell should be criticized for is the bizarre "pro-woman" campaign that's accompanied sophomore LP G I R L. Before the album had been released, Pharrell spoke to GQ about the "Women and girls, for the most part, (who) "have just been so loyal to me and supported me."" The stylized album title then was Pharrell's way of paying tribute to members of the opposite sex that had helped him out so much.  What Pharrell seemed to be forgetting in his tip of the Dudley Do Right hat was using the word "girl" infantilizes those heroic women who had helped him along the way. If you're a man reading this, ignore the "would you call your mother this?" test and think about it this way: if a woman consistently referred to you as a "boy" wouldn't it start to rankle you? I know it would me. The word "boy" connotes a doe-eyed naivety I'd like to think I've pushed past. Boys and girls are people who don't know better; with minds that worry about things like lunch and the time until recess. When you insist on using either to describe someone who has reached adulthood, all you're saying is their mind is set to childish.

If Pharrell's facile campaign had stopped there, I wouldn't be writing this article. Only when he released the video for the clattering funk of "Come Get It Bae" did I find myself compelled to write something. The song itself is undeniably catchy, with rallying handclaps that recall "Iko Iko" and strutting guitar Pharrell might've swept up from the floor of the "Get Lucky" sessions. I wish it was left there and we never had to see Pharrell's grand cinematic vision for G I R L's third single. Instead what we as viewers are provided with is the zenith of Pharrell's ludicrously mixed message. In red block lettering recalling "Blurred Lines," the words "BEAUTY HAS NO EXPIRATION DATE" dominate the first frame of the video. By itself, that kind of hokey "Dove Real Beauty" message is blandly inoffensive. The problem is with who Pharrell trots out to "prove his point." "None of them boys know the first thing about your fantasy," he assures a parade of under-40 women from his director's chair. The supposed lack of a black woman on G I R L's cover is "replaced" by the absence of a woman who has made it past her fourth decade on Earth.

Now I understand when you're casting a video you go with the best, most qualified candidates. It is part of the reason I took offense to the controversy that swirled around the casting for Arcade Fire's stunning "We Exist" video. In the clip, which premiered in late May, Amazing Spider-Man actor Andrew Garfield plays a young person struggling with gender identity while living in a small town. For an excruciating six minutes, Garfield's character is leaving home in women's clothes and getting into fights at the local watering hole. Ultimately Garfield's unnamed character steps on-stage with Arcade Fire at Coachella and finds a "home." When Against Me!'s lead singer Laura Jane Grace saw the video she took to Twitter "Dear @arcadefire, maybe when making a video for a song called 'We Exist' you should get an actual 'Trans' actor instead of Spider-Man?" Grace (formerly Thomas James Gabel) has been open about her own personal battles with gender dysphoria and was understandably upset about the exclusion. I don't share her same frustration, a. because I'm "cishet scum" and b. I believe Garfield gave a real portrayal of an extremely disenfranchised minority. The women in "Come Get It Bae," through no fault of their own, fail miserably in conveying the agelessness of beauty. There isn't even an attempt made to capture beauty in its twilight years. No pieces of flab, no grey hairs, and zero wrinkles are shown as striking women nod in approval to the luridly repetitious "come get it bae." 

Not that I personally mind lurid come-ons in R&B. The Weeknd has staked an entire career on being a hedonistic lecher. In "High for This" he's coaxing a woman into popping ecstasy to have better sex. "Enemy" has him doing his horrifying best to make a lover into a rival. Elsewhere in the Indie R&B circuit, Miguel begged "tell me that the p**** is mine," in "P**** is Mine," and came away with one of 2012's most beautifully desperate songs. The difference between those two and Pharrell is they weren't trying to mask their material as The Second Sex. They understood misogyny was under-girding their material, because men can be misogynistic. They know they don't deserve applause for telling a sad truth and they're not looking for any. Despite his assertion being a "feminist" is an impossible aspiration, Pharrell's seeking credit for wearing the sheep's clothing of one. The whole thing is remarkably disingenuous, telling women they can go their own way while ensuring what they need in their life is Skateboard P. "You won't believe what you'll do," he insists in his feathery voice. What's significantly harder to believe is that Pharrell thought any of this could be uplifting.

 

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please feel free to leave them below. And if you just want to yell at me and say "you're wrong," you're welcome to do that as well.

What's New(s)?

Miley Cyrus covers the Smiths 

No one will ever confuse pop megastar Miley Cyrus with indie pop pioneers the Smiths. At their best the Morrissey-fronted quartet cracked Number 2 on the UK Albums Chart and continues to exist as one of music's most adored cult acts. Cyrus meanwhile can lay claim to two of 2013's largest chart smashes and is currently in the midst of one the most written about tours since U2's Popmart Tour. 

Despite the ocean of difference between the two artists, Cyrus wasn't kept away from covering one of the band's all-time greats during the European-leg of the Bangerz Tour. At Belfast's Odyssey Arena on Monday night, the pop megastar offered up her reworking of 1986 Queen Is Dead cut "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". Though it starts off with a bit of hesitant pop wavering, the end of the clip finds Cyrus fully committed to the chorus' doomed romance.

The cover comes on the heels of her performance of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" with the Flaming Lips, which will appear on the Flips' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band tribute album.

 

Morrissey streams new song "Istanbul"

Speaking of the former Smiths lead singer, Morrissey has a new record entitled World Peace Is None Of Your Business out July 15 Harvest/Capitol and to promote the LP Moz is now streaming audio of album track "Istanbul". Spotify users can listen to the song below, but if not a member of the site, you can enjoy Morrissey's spoken word performance of "Istanbul".

RiFF RAFF has at last unveiled the tracklist for debut album NEON iCON

A release for rap weirdo RiFF RAFF's debut album NEON iCON has been promised for a while now, but now that promise has materialized with the announcement that the LP will drop June 24 on the Mad Decent label. And if the incredibly garish album cover weren't enough to lure you in, the exhaustive guest list may. Mac Miller, the Dirty Projectors' Amber Coffman, Mike Posner, and Childish Gambino will all appear, along with fellow Houston natives Slim Thug and Paul Wall.

To complement the overstuffed guest lineup, NEON iCON will feature production from DJ Mustard, Diplo, Harry Fraud, and DJA. The tracklist for NEON iCON is included below and apparently if you pre-order the album through RiFF RAFF's site you get a pair of exclusive tracks ("2 GiRLS ONE PiPE" and "TROPiCAL VACATiON"). In addition, RiFF RAFF's dropped the unsurprisingly bizzaro video for "How to Be Man “which is also viewable below.

 

Tracklist:

1. "iNTRODUCING THE iCON"
2. "KOKAYNE"
3. "WETTER THAN TSUNAMi"
4. "JODY 3 MOONS (SKIT)"
5. "VERSACE PYTHON"
6. "LAVA GLACiERS (ft. Childish Gambino)"
7. "TiP TOE WiNG iN MY JAWWWDiNZ"
8. "MAYBE YOU LOVE ME (ft. Mike Posner)"
9. "AQUABERRY DOLPHiN (ft. Mac Miller)"
10. "THE BLOOMiNGDALES AT WiNDSHiRE PALACE (SKIT)"
11. "TiME"
12. "HOW TO BE THE MAN"
13. "COOL iT DOWN (ft. Amber Coffman)"
14. "ViP PASS TO MY HEART"
15. "HOW TO BE THE MAN (ft. Slim Thug and Paul Wall) (Houston Remix)"

Check back tomorrow for more of the newest in new(s) and follow AllFreshSounds on Twitter for updates throughout the day.

Top 10 Music Videos of 2013

For music videos, 2013 stands as one of the most alternately minimalist and bombastic years in recent memory. We had videos shot for $13 (more on that later) rubbing elbows with clips that probably spent that in half-a-second. Some were content to just host an awesome dinner party, while others irreparably damaged dancing bears. We had cult-like pastors riding white horses, A$AP Rocky & Skrillex hanging out on rooftops in the Dominican Republic, and more than a few puppets. We also saw one of rock's all-time classics receive a 21st century makeover; blurring the lines between music video and channel surfing. Oh and Pharrell, a man whose own 2013 was about as crazy as everything on this list combined, dropped a 24-hour music video. There was only room for 10 though, so more than a few stirring visuals were left off. Rest assured everything that made it earned its place.    


10. "Suit & Tie" ft. Jay Z- Justin Timberlake (Dir. David Fincher)

 













 
This one could've been the most over-the-top video of 2013 and no one would've batted an eye. Two absurdly high-profile music figures teaming up in a video directed by Se7en/Fight Club/Social Network director David Fincher, how could it not be bombastic? Instead, "Suit & Tie" heads in the other direction. Timberlake and Hov' hang out in an apartment, eat cereal, and watch basketball. Both hide behind mics that would make Elvis envious and meticulously tinker in the studio, making the role of studio-rat the coolest thing ever. Filmed in a crisp black-and-white style that resembles Fincher's efforts for the iconic "Vogue" video, "Suit & Tie"s big-budget shows. Still Timberlake and Jay Z are relatable. They may arrive in tuxedos, but these are two are more comfortable kicking back in street clothes.

9. "Love is Lost (Hello Steve Reich Mix)"- David Bowie (Dir. David Bowie)

"Love is Lost"s Halloween release-date was perfect for more than one reason. Of course the imagery of ghostly apparitions and human-puppets is perfect for a day rife with ghouls and goblins. However, once you hear about the video's shoe-string budget, supposedly totaling $13 (the cost of a USB stick), the Halloween comparisons become even more appropriate. No genre thrives on micro-budgets quite like the horror-movie genre and the chameleonic Bowie tips his hat to that thriftiness with this skin-crawler. Begun in comeback video "Where Are We Now?", Bowie continues the trend of appending his face to lifeless dolls. And if that weren't enough, he wanders down the darkened halls of his New York office while mourning the loss of his marionette friends. James Murphy's remix of the Next Day cut suggests movement, though it's in short supply here. Do all the running you'd like, these lumbering specters will catch up to you.

8. "Hot Knife"- Fiona Apple (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

   

Much of Fiona Apple's excellent 2012 release The Idler Wheel... felt combustible, though the igniting spark didn't come until closer "Hot Knife." Where much of the record languished in relationship hell, "Hot Knife" danced like a "bird of paradise," coasting on little more than: echoing timpani, trilling piano, and a multi-tracked Fiona. Former-boyfriend Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights/There Will Be Blood/The Master) preserves that ecstatic, small-stakes feeling for the video. Apple exuberantly hollers key lines, tilting her head to-and-fro like the female lead singing the big love song during a Broadway musical. When she scorches, Anderson's stark black-and-white converts into color. Other than split-screening with sister Maude Maggart, Apple's all alone, and yet nothing in the indelible clip suggests loneliness. When you're on this high of a cloud what could possibly bring you down?

7. "Mind Mischief"- Tame Impala (Dir. David Wilson)

There's a slew of words that come to mind when I listen to Tame Impala: wide-eyed, trippy, Revolver-indebted, and quite often lonely; "sultry" doesn't even begin to figure in. Not so for the David Wilson directed video, which spotlights a naive male student getting special attention from a vivacious teacher. Kevin Parker's lyrics suggest an innocence being slowly crushed by a turbulent relationship, or in the case of the video: a high-heel. An extended slo-mo posterior shot risks being labelled misogynistic, but perfectly conveys the sort of fumbling grabassery that marks many teenage boys. And fumble our young lead does as he shares a joint and a close-quarters car romp with his teacher. Inevitably the drugs kick in and Wilson takes us to an animated cosmos where the two embrace, recalling Anchorman's "Pleasure-Town" scene in the process. Parker dreamily warbles "she remembers my name" over and over; unfortunately that dream is shattered when the teacher expels the student and drives off solo. It comes with the territory, a natural consequence of "dreaming aloud."

6. "Worst Behavior"- Drake (Dir. Director X & Drake)

       

 




   

I'll admit I came close to hating "Worst Behavior," from Drake's junior release Nothing Was the Same. It had nothing to do with the booming trap-rap beat; my ire was exclusively reserved for Drake's chestpuffing persona. His snarl of "motherf***ers never loved" is more whining than menacing. And no amount of booming bass can give that bark added bite.

However, all that stops mattering the moment this ten-minute extravaganza begins. A love-letter to Drake's adopted hometown of Memphis, "Worst Behavior" privies us to: cut-up jazz sessions, Southern-pimping, enough pink Caddies to make Cam'ron nauseous, and a lengthy mid-section that includes Juicy J and Project Pat talking hush-puppies. Drake's own dad makes a lip-synching appearance, as does a compatriot in an OVO owl-suit (sadly no Ma$e). And if all that weren't enough, we hear choice bits of "Own It" and are teased by what may be an upcoming video for the toxic Jhené Aiko cut "From Time." Listing all of that, I'm still forgetting a few things, that's how dense "Worst Behavior" is. To some it's indulgent, to Drizzy its "just flexin."

5. "We Can't Stop"- Miley Cyrus (Dir. Diane Martel)

When's the last time something so-roundly labeled as irredeemable trash has inspired so many think-pieces? Maybe it has something to do with the gaudy video for "We Can't Stop" melting most of my functioning brain cells, but I can't think of anything in recent history that tops this. On-fire rap producer Mike Will Made It and Cyrus' teaming is relatively straightforward, catchy, electro-pop. Saying this video, directed by Diane Martel (who also shot "Blurred Lines"), is "straightforward" or "normal" is an incredible misnomer. "Bonkers" doesn't even begin to describe Cyrus' and Martel's grand vision. Miley continually chirps "it's our party we can do what we want to," though the visions more closely resemble a prepubescent acid trip where dancing bears haunt your dreams, meals consist of money sandwiches, marshmallows are lit by candlelight, and you spell out "TWERK" in your alphabet soup. Bash it for being: racist, gaudy, vulgar, or idiotic if you'd like, just know that no video in 2013 proves the adage "there's no such thing as bad publicity " quite like this one.

4. "Bound 2"- Kanye West (Dir. Nick Knight)

He has to be trolling us right? That's the first question you're likely to ask upon viewing this Nick Knight directed clip for closing Yeezus number "Bound 2." I know I found myself muttering that when I first saw the audacious video. When brought up in circles of friends, everyone was oddly hesitant to profess an unfettered admiration for it. Was the self-proclaimed "creative genius" simply f***ing around, including soaring eagles and galloping horses for a laugh? Not quite. Yeezus' greatest strength as an album is its fierce reliance on staunch-minimalism. "Bound 2"s "hokey" video is an illuminating reflection of that new-found aesthetic. West could've have given us flashing lights and lasers; he doesn't. What we get is mostly green-screened footage of West and wife Kim Kardashian getting tantric atop a motorcycle out in the desert. As Hari Sethi points out in his wonderful piece on the video, this "lone rider" role is exclusively reserved for white males. Seeing West in the role isn't silly, it's subtly groundbreaking. Not only is he challenging audience expectations, he's fighting to change longstanding archetypes. 

3. "Next"- Tim Vocals (Dir. @GetmJaf)

Rap, more than any other genre favors the notion of "keeping it real." And while larger-than-life characters like Rick Ross have blown a hole in that notion, there will always be room for rappers like Chief Keef who possess a near journalistic-eye in detailing the "real world." I hate to be hyperbolic, but no video in the rap/R&B world circa 2013 is as real as the sobering clip Harlem-native Tim Vocals crafted for his Weeknd interpolation of "Next." The self-proclaimed "goon singer" stalks the streets at night, insulated from the noisy hustle and bustle of the Big Apple by his Beats headphones. At surging moments when the measured piano explodes into clattering percussion, he drums along. 

On first watch nothing is particularly striking, until the end when a giant message sprawls across the screen reading: "FREE TIM VOCALS: GONE TILL NOVEMBER." It's then you realize when he croons "I wasn't selling drugs, I was up there smoking bud," and later, "How can I be so dumb to get pinched for a dime of the smoke?" the story he's telling is entirely autobiographical. Never has someone waiting in line been as harrowing as it is here, when we get one of the last glimpses of Vocals before he surrenders his freedom. This is Cinéma vérité masquerading as an R&B video. And like any great documentarian, Vocals doesn't outright celebrate or condemn the mistakes he's made, he "simply" acknowledges them.

 

   

2. "Diane Young"- Vampire Weekend (Dir. Primo Kahn)

Vampire Weekend's third album Modern Vampires of the City painstakingly detailed the transitory periods in our lives. Times when we focus on the sun at our back instead of the uncertain shadows in front of us. Religion acted as as Trojan horse for the New York four-piece, at one point using an all-loving God as an allegory for a one-sided (non-committal) relationship.
 

The first image in the video for auto-tuned rockabilly single "Diane Young" continues the charade, offering a comical reworking of the Last Supper where the main seat belongs to a man in a balaclava. Any pretense of religious commentary is quickly abandoned when the scene switches to a raucous party where: Sky Ferriera, Santigold, and the Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth bottle pop, and unleash their inner-MacGyver by reconstituting a saxophone as a densely packed bong. "Nobody knows what the future holds," Ezra Koenig sings in the critical breakdown. We're all going over the cliff at some point, so why not celebrate?

1. "Afterlife"- Arcade Fire (Dir. Emily Kai Bock)

It's almost kismet that Arcade Fire's crowning achievement in 2013 was also there most modest. When the video for "Afterlife" first appeared, I wrote "One thing that gets lost in the midst of Arcade Fire's relentless promotion for Reflektor is the sense of humanity they've imbued the work with." After all, this is a band who began their debut album by resolving to dig a tunnel (yeah a tunnel) through the hard-packed snow to bridge the gap between distant young lovers.

Win Butler and company are bleeding hearts in the best way possible, and nowhere on the career redefining Reflektor is there more blood loss than "Afterlife." That childlike naiveté so prominent in parts of Funeral lingers, albeit tempered by hard-earned truths and world-weariness. Burning down the wick, Butler continues to believe a perilous relationship can be worked out through conversation, even if takes a trip into the afterlife to complete the task.

The father of this video is worn down as well. A widower, he struggles to make ends meet while dealing with one son who'd rather speak English than Spanish and another content to deceive him to attend a friend's party. That weariness becomes literal when the father and youngest son go to sleep, as the eldest sneaks out. Soon enough all of their dreams are projected before us. The father searches for his lost wife in construction sites and crowded dancehalls. Collapsing in the middle of the party the older brother sees visions of baptisms. The youngest imagines a terrifying scene of being trapped in a laundromat dryer with no one to help him out. Only the father's dreams are bathed in director Bock's warm black-and-white, suggesting the color of life left him when he lost his wife. The kids meanwhile keep up hope. They firmly believe after all of "the bad advice" dissipates and the hangers-on clear out, there remains a chance to retain a connection all the way into the afterlife. Sigmund Freud once posited "dream life is capable of extraordinary achievements," "Afterlife" offers the proof.

  

Honorable Mentions:

"Trying to Be Cool"- Phoenix (Dir. Canada): Fueled by "mint-julep testosterone" Thomas Mars and friends display their own ideal of cool, which includes: cannonballs, primates in executive chairs, white dress-suits, and of course ping-pong.

"Wishes"- Beach House (Dir. Eric Wareheim): Baltimore dream-pop duo scores a "pagan pep rally" where Twin Peaks/Mad Men actor Ray Wise emcees a raffle to determine who will sacrificed to the local gods.

"Lilies"- Bats for Lashes" (Dir. Peter Sluszka): Natasha Khan looks heavenward for answers, only to be met by hellish puppets.

Editor's Notes: You'll notice Bob Dylan's innovative "video" for "Like a Rolling Stone" is noticeably absent from the list. I didn't forget Mr. Zimmerman, I just believe what he and director Vania Heymann offered up went well beyond the scope of a "music video" and rather than shoehorn it in, I left it off out of respect. Pharrell's 24-hour "Happy" video was left off not because I don't believe it doesn't merit inclusion, but I simply have been able to finish the whole thing, and including it without watching the whole thing would be extremely disingenuous. Finally, I hope everyone enjoined the list. If you think something is too high or too low or some grand omission was made, feel free to say so in the comment section.