Blake Shelton Trashes Traditional Fans Again In New Video

Screenshot - William Lee Golden, Joe Bonsall, Blake Shelton, Duane Allen, Richard Sterban

Rather as a surprise comes a sixth single of Blake Shelton's 2016 album "IF I'M HONEST" and I guess to tone down the suggestive lyrics of "Doing It To Country Songs," its video is packed into an animated, family-friendly, cuddly, furry affair. Actually half-way country with rich harmonies and if it will chart, song partners, The Oak Ridge Boys will be back in the country single charts for the first time in 18 years. Laudable, isn't it? Well, it seems after a close watch of the cartoon, that there is a hidden message in the video-clip subsiding the fun.



Blake is not the first and probably not the last to use animation for a music video. Remember Lonestar's "Mr. Mom" or Brad Paisley's "Crushin' It" which actually featured an animated, beer-guzzlin' Shelton. In "Doin' It," the bar featured in the clip, named "Ol' Reds" as in the song and the venue Blake is gonna be opening in Nashville, a prominent beer advertisement disguised as a clock, promotes "Paisley Lite Beer." Nothing wrong with that.


Blake's video is full of easter eggs to be discovered. Besides leaving song titles on bar jars, on the wall, and guitar cases, even making a reference to his guests' big hit "Elvira," there are even some funny moments among the furries and one amphibian friend. That Blake casts himself as a stag, called Blake Buck on the marquee is quite humorous. The Oaks are cast as a possum, William Lee Golden; a beaver, Joe Bonsall; a wolf, Duane Allen, and Richard Sterban as a bullfrog, him catching the barfly and swallowing it, priceless.

Screenshot

I neither have an issue, that this rather light tune was written by heavy-weight Paul Overstreet together with Jakob Lyda and Marty Dodson. Sometimes a ditty is a ditty and the harmonies of the Oaks made me smile.

I also think choosing a hound-dog as the bartender and a skunk as the janitor are pretty funny, just think about it, "when it comes to clean, there is only one skunk."



But then Blake Shelton wouldn't be Blake Shelton if he couldn't land a side jab at every traditional country music fan that still wears a hat and a silver belt-buckle with pride. I guess by now that would be the "old farts and jackasses," you may see in every true Texas dancehall.



To make his point, he uses the janitor skunk to actually dress up. But to get his new accessories, the skunk is diving in the trash and rescues the hat and buckle out of the dumpster. As subliminal as it may be, shame on you, Blake!



★★/★★★★★ (2 out of 5)

Moby - Lost In The World

An angry electronica artist Moby is back and just released his 14th studio album "These Systems Are Failing" on the 14th and is now doubling down with another (4th) single "Are You Lost In The World Like Me" from the LP. Even though still recording mostly by himself and only using the "choir" on two tracks, he calls his entity in reference to D.H. Lawrence, Moby & the Void Pacific Choir and names the new album a debut.

The outspoken environmentalist, vegan offers a eulogy to the present and paints a dark picture to the future, about our society, the way we are living and how we are abusing creation.

"These systems were supposed to protect us, to free us, but instead they've poisoned our air, killed the animals, butchered the land - and destroyed ourselves. We think we’ve conquered the problems of food production and wealth distribution, yet we’re more miserable than ever."
(from his YouTube manifesto for the release of "These Systems Are Failing.")

The album title is a recurring theme in his current single, "Are You Lost In The World Like Me?" which with its catchy chorus tries to unite all the lost souls out there, the ones who see that all "the systems are failing." A potent song of reflection and outcry especially considering the state of the election cycle this year in the USA.

Animation artist, London-based Steve Cutts, who like Moby condemns the excesses of our societies - watch his animation  "Man" - made a new, absolutely powerful animated video for "Are You Lost In The World Like Me?" Known for his colorful cartoons, he took a black and white approach, inspired by the early animation of the depression era, including to Max Fleischer's "Betty Boop" (even so blond and big chested), a bit "Metropolis" by Fritz Lang and some Robert Crumb and painted an utopian nightmare, where every human interaction is forbidden by fine and only allowed via smartphone.

Besides touching themes like bullying, over excessive police force, an overloaded penal system and our way of meat consumption, it also depicts smartphone software that "photoshops" your selfies to a better you, takes potshots at Tinder (App) and YouTube's Schadenfreude (Fail) section or our fascination with Kim Kardashian's lower back.
Grimmer is the "phone video taping" of a suizid and no one tries to stop it and this leads to the tragic end, where the metaphor of the lemming "suicide" is used. Oblivious people staring at their smartphones simply walk off the cliff.

★★★★(★)/★★★★★ (4½/5)


Magnificent video with tons of little details and references. I hope this video will still have some virality to be entered for the Grammy Awards in February of 2018. It just came in a tad late, for the 2017 Grammys. Yes it is that good and that unique. In two days it already accrued over 1.1 Million views and made me a Steve Cutts fan.

By the way, next Sunday, October 23 Moby will be headlining his own vegan charity event, Circle V at the Fonda Teatre in Los Angeles benefitting animal rights organisation "Mercy For Animals." It will be Moby's only live performance this year.



Sources: YouTube, circlev.com, http://moby.com/, www.stevecutts.com