Rammstein - "Radio"
Predicate: Schlager with Schauwert
Rammstein have released the second single from their new album (from May 17) - of course not without spectacle. After the controversial battle painting "Germany", the Berlin rock theatricals in the video clip to "Radio" (Director: Jörn Heitmann) a little livelier: The band acts as a rock'n'roll group from the fifties - and celebrates with a nostalgic flair (and Kraftwerk homage) the liberating force of those radio broadcasts from the West, which allowed the citizens of the GDR despite a ban pop socialization. "I was not allowed to belong / Do not see, talk or hear / But every night for one or two hours / Am I lost to this world", sings the - again - grotesquely made frontman Till Lindemann.
Radio devices are nursed on bare breasts, at the end of the clip, a revolution is formed against the oppressor power in the Tempelhof airport building. This black-and-white film has a lot of show and shiver value, which once again makes clear the origin of Rammstein's inner emigration and forced silent dissidence in GDR times. The desire to break every taboo to the point of pain, to savor the long-denied freedom of art to the fullest - all this is in this "radio" -Slag in it.
Taylor Swift feat. Brendon Urie - "ME!"
Predicate: Disney Musical, borderline
An aggressive snake that dissolves into butterflies? Right in the first few seconds of the video clip to her new single "ME!" Taylor Swift displays her latest image change impressively: The time has come for Swift to stand as a vamp and rock brew fighting and gloomy against her hater ("Look What You Made Me Do"): In the squeaky Disney world of "ME " (Director: Dave Myers and Swift) dominate bright colors and an almost grenzdebil happy mind. Brendon Urie, singer of Panic At The Disco !, announces the musical partner for an innocent flirting story in nostalgic "umbrellas of Cherbourg" scenery celebrating individualism and self-love: "You're the only one of you / baby, that's the fun of you ". There are cotton candy clouds, pink fading clothes, terrible faux-French and a chorus that every kid can sing along with. One thinks it is the soundtrack to a new animation spectacle in the cinema. But it's just the new candy Taylor. Sugar shock anybody?
Bruce Springsteen - "Hello Sunshine"
Predicate: Western of yesteryear
Bruce Springsteen, 69, released his first album in five years on June 14th - that's nice. But those who had hoped for political messages from the "boss" from New Jersey to the Trump-stricken people, must first settle for "Hello Sunshine". Springsteen's new album (without E Street Band) "Western Stars" is said to pay tribute to country and songbook legends like Glen Campbell, Jimmy Webb and Burt Bacharach. However, the orchestral single sounds amazingly obvious as a tribute to "Everybody's Talkin '", Harry Nilsson's grandiose Let-Me-In-Silence hymn from 1969. In the Lyric video, there are beautiful middle-of-the-road images of Ur -Americana, muscle cars and desert highways. Of course, escapism is also political. Somehow.
Stormzy - "Vossi Bop"
Predicate: Search the Idris (Elba)!
"Fuck the Government and fuck Boris!", Stormzy raps in his new clip and stretches the Brexiteers Theresa May and Boris Johnson two finger fingers. England's most successful rapper returns after his debut album "Gang Signs & Prayer" (2017) with a reduced to the essential beat track on which insures the artist from the Grime underground superstar of his own integrity: "My name is still chocolate / I've got nothing left to prove. " In the clip (directed by Henry Scholfield / Caviar), he poses confidently on Westminster Bridge and in front of the Bank of England - and has even organized a rather cool guest appearance by actor Idris Elba. Just dance to Stormzys Vossi Bop!
Madonna feat. Maluma - "Medellin"
Predicate: Quite the old one
Eye patch instead of cowboy hat! Yes, but no: not with Madonna! The 60-year-old releases her new album on June 14th and has now also submitted the clip for her comeback single (directed by Diana Kunst and Mau Morgó). Of course, this is a fashion party, in which first the album protagonist "Madame X", apparently a Mata-Hari-like spy with a moving past, is introduced: "I have been kidnapped, tortured, humiliated and abused," says Madonna im sacral intro, "I still believe in the goodness of humans." So: "Like A Prayer" reloaded. But that has little to do with the rest of the clip, because it's about initiating the wedding of Madonna with the young Colombian reggaeton star Maluma, who is doing a very good job here. Madonna not always, even if she sucks provocatively on the big toe and gives a tango governess with whip. Eyepatch, red, white, black are shown, but in the end, as the bride in white dancing on the banquet table, she has in addition then but again the Western hat on - since "Music" their replacement crown. Quite the old one.
FKA Twigs - "Cellophane"
Predicate: Great feelings in transparent film
For three years they had to wait for new music by British electronic singer Tahliah Debrett Barnett alias FKA Twigs, which was partly because of the fact that the now 31-year-old had to operate on several mini-tumors from the pettiness. The recovery was hard - as reflected in the stunning, artful video clip for "Cellophane" (directed by Andrew Thomas Huang, who also worked for Björk). Barnett contributed to the spectacular scenes of Pole Dancing - and gradually regained control of her body and confidence in her own physique.
The dreamy ballad song tells of farewells and memories; Feelings you once had are wrapped in plastic wrap for protection. You can still see them, but do not touch or feel. At the top of the magic wand, which grows out of the dance pole into the heavenly, she is confronted with the disease - and kicking her boldly with high heels in the face, her own. From the crash into a red Urschlamm occurs the rebirth of one of the currently most important pop artists.