“If the whole world is watching us, let them watch us…”

I’m happy to note that there is a definite difference between loving a band and loving a band’s music. Bloc Party are easily one of my favourite bands – possibly of all time – and yet there’s only a handful of their videos that I would count as memorable (my first impression of them in the black-and-white Banquet, the robot love affair of Flux etc.).  OKGO have made some of the best videos of the past twenty years, and yet I don’t think they’d even rank in my top 100 favourite bands. It’s weird how things can disconnect like that.

In this instance, however, I’m happy to say there has been a great crossover – one of my favourite bands, the aforementioned BP, have made an absolute cracker of a video in Kettling, the second single from their latest LP, Four. In it, we’re taken to the magic land of the school playground. For context, did you ever play Bull Rush as a kid? Nasty business, really, but Google it if you haven’t. Anyway, this is all about that game. It used to get taken way too seriously, and shit used to get beyond the pale. Here, it’s given the slow-mo war treatment – not so much glorifying it as giving it a new perspective. It fits with the song’s down-tuned guitars, as well. Nicely done, says I. Give it a try!