Review: Katy Perry feat. Kanye West - "E.T."

Italian photographer and director Floria Sigismondi stays true to her style and creates a dark and futuristic video treatment for Katy Perry's smash hit «E.T.» feat. Kanye West.

I anticipated the video release of «E.T.» a lot. And the fact that Floria Sigismondi directed it, made it even more exciting; she might as well be one of the most talented music video directors out there. Her Sigur Ròs video "Untitled" is a masterpiece. Her Christina Aguliera video "Hurt" is epic. And she's one of the few music video directors who were able to establish and maintain a unique style, regardless what kind of music they were treating.

"E.T." might not be Sigismondi's best work but it has definitely some great moments in it. It's high concept, flawlessly executed and it matches the song's acoustic atmosphere quite well. The video opens with a great cinematic intro, and there are some some amazing shots in it - especially when Katy Perry softly touches the surface of a faraway planet to unveil a mysterious stranger, who appears to be her lover.

But on the other hand the video suffers from some annoying faux-pas. The stock footage thing... C'mon. I mean, how many times have we seen the same cheetah wasting the same poor gazelle over and over again? Or the humping monkeys?
Furthermore, the editing is a bit too cautious for my taste. But that's Sigismondi's style; she tends to stay in one set for a relatively long period of time, then change it to reveal something new and push the story forward. That's fine with me.
But again I have to ask myself: Why does a well-established director and artist like Sigismondi use the same out-worn symbols and subjective iconography we've seen over and over again in the last two years? It's all so god damn "Gaga-esque" these days. But I guess it would be naive to wonder why.
Still, the video remains quite awesome and is probably one of the best so far this year.

Rating: 4/5

Review: Kanye West feat. Rihanna - "All of the Lights"

Hype Williams' latest Kanye video offers a strange combination of mind numbing 2D graphics, strobelight soaked performances and a very generous look at Rihannas décolleté.

True art comes from a perfect balance between concept and chaos. Bad art is either just chaos or just concept. I like to think that art which solely comes from chaos is still better than art which emerges from pure concept. The concept of this video however is to generate chaos. And that doesn't work out very well at all.

I have great respect for Hype's work, he is a music video pioneer who delivered some true classics back in the old days, like Busta's "Gimme Some Mo" or "Can It Be All So Simple" by the Wu Tang Clan. But he has a tendency to get lazy. First there was this letterbox thing, which in most cases seemed to be an excuse for not having to shoot anything but some cute girls wearing Gucci hats and Versace undies while wiggeling their asses in front of the camera. It all became just fashion.
But now, with this video, the simplicity reaches yet another climax. It penetrates the technical level as well, which I think is a very alarming thing, keeping in mind that we talk about an expensive Yeezy-Hype collabo. No more 35mm, no more angles, no more slow motion, no more nothing.

Hype must have earned quite a respectable amount of money for this. And we all know that Kanye tends to "buy" quality, which explains why he thinks a "good" music video must have cost at least a million bucks. But I just can't believe even Kanye is happy with this one. Some scenes, the intro shots with the little girl for example, just look awfully DSRL-amateurish. I am sick and tired of DSRL-Videos. And furthermore, it all makes no sense at all. What are you trying to tell us, guys?
The strobe thing sometimes works, sometimes is doesn't. It's very simplistic, which is not a bad thing itself. But the sudden alternation between the total mayhem of graphical impressions, lights and colors, and the completely flat and slowly edited performance scenes with Rihanna and Kid Cudi just seems superficial and crude.

The police car sequence looks pretty awesome, yeah. But you kinda get enough of that after you realize that they obviously thought that this scene would carry the whole music video, which it doesn't.
This video reaks of the idea that by putting the brand "Hype" on it, it doesn't have to be complex, challenging or visually appealing. Hype rather plunges everything into a big paint-pot.
The only concept I see in this video that there mustn't be any concept at all. Which actually is the worst concept you can think of.

Rating: 2/5