Nobody has ever accused Yeasayer of being too normal. With the release of the video for “Madder Red” they’ve assured themselves of at least another year of anti-mainstream street cred. Equal parts weird and disgusting, the video stars “cute-as-a-button” Kristen Bell fawning over her beloved, but ailing pet, which resembles a goiter with a mangled baby leg projecting from it. Fortunately for the sake of my stomach and the bile therein, it would seem the majority of the budget was used to recruit Kristen Bell and not spent on extravagant CGI for the part of her dying companion.
Instead the cheaply crafted muppet-from-hell slinks around the house, oozing odd blood from its mouth and puss from what I’m assuming is its head. Despite the terminal conditions, Bell departs for a casting call, leaving grandma in charge of caring for the one-eyed, cancerous garbanzo bean. While slugging back its juice box, death comes a knockin’. Mid scene, Bell answers the dreaded phone call, and even though she’s only pretend-driving, I think she’s setting a terrible example for drivers worldwide. Sadly, grandma reports that things have taken a turn for the worst, forcing Kristen to make a dramatic exit…..aaaaand CUT.
In a last-ditch effort she scoops up her albino dung heap and rushes it to the vet. Without a second thought or even so much as a, “what in the name of all things holy is that,” the nurse and doctor proceed to operate. But it’s too late. The tears stream down Bell’s face. Her precious Frankenbean has passed and her soul is deeply wounded. As she exits the clinic with the unceremonious “cardboard box for dead things” her attention turns to the heavens where “Beanie” is staring back at her as if to say, “Even though I had the face of a rainbow trout and the body of a tumor-infested cow brain, you loved me. I will always be with you.”
*A real WTF moment in music videos*
The lesson here is obviously…uhh, Yeasayer, what exactly is the lesson?
Oh yeah, movie stars + super abstract videos = street cred (and nightmares…lots of nightmares).
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