Popcraft

It’s Let’s Talk About 2009 Week here at Popcraft, and so I think it’s reasonable to start out with my favorite song from the past year. It is seven minutes long, but that’s okay! You spend most of the time just rocking back and forth to the same, swaying melody while the music slowly kindles from intimate campfire to somehow-romantic forest fire.

Ugh ugh ugh I love this video. “We are just a bunch of honest kids hanging out and causing mild mischief” type videos are usually too postured to remind me of ever hanging out with my friends. I can’t remember the last time I went to several house parties and kissed like half of my most photogenic friends and then got food and then went to watch the sunset, even though I’d probably had a similar experience, minus the kissing, plenty of times. It doesn’t usually connect for me because, in those videos, the kids always seem so aware that this is that one cinematic moment in their lives where everyone is beautiful, that this one day will live in their hearts forever and can never be repeated. Not only is that kind of awareness false, but so is the entire premise that these one-use-only moments of perfect youth exist.

And maybe that’s why “Hellhole Ratrace” makes me want to hug every friend I’ve ever gotten drunk and told a secret to. Christopher Owens looks like he’s unknowingly writing the song in his head as the video rolls on. The shots are gorgeous, but they’re expressive in the same simple way as the music – the buildup isn’t supposed to lead you to any climax, it’s the result of drinking all night and running off of a buzz . The memorable moments register on a much smaller, more realistic scale. These kids are just as everyday as the chorus playing over them. They don’t go to see the sun set, it’s just sort of where they end up.