Song of the Day 9/17: OK Go, “Obsession”
Music videos seem like artifacts of the past, but bands still release them, only with smaller budgets. One thing has improved — back in the ’80s you had to wait for MTV to play the video you wanted to see. Today you can go to YouTube and watch the video to “Obsession” over and over again.
Like Fountains of Wayne or They Might Be Giants, a band they used to open for, OK Go can mimic so many pop-rock styles it’s hard to identify them with any one sound. “Obsession” sounds a bit like updated INXS, but their 2006 breakthrough, “Here It Goes Again”, was the kind of punk-tinged power pop so popular back then. The tunes are usually catchy if a little generic.
Their videos are anything but. It started when “Here It Goes Again” won them widespread acclaim using nothing but the band members doing a choreographed routine on motorized treadmills. It was shot in a continuous take, though, which became a trademark in a series of clever videos that culminated in an enormous, self-referential Rube Goldberg contraption for 2010’s “This Too Shall Pass.” To paraphrase the music-critic cliche, it bears repeat watching. “Obsession” was released last year.
The band apparently releases albums but doesn’t sell many. You can literally see why. The experience just isn’t as much fun with your eyes closed.
Not many hits on the video, so let me preview it by saying it’s just the band, wearing wires to suspend them from the ceiling, and 571 printers pumping out a series of images behind them. Kind of amazing how little it takes to be eye-poppingly creative.