In their new video, the Kings of Leon do something they haven’t done in years: smile.
Yes, inspired by the newfound happiness that fuels their upcoming Mechanical Bull album, the Kings ditch the dourness that came to define the Come Around Sundown era, and get back to the business of being a bad-ass band … and, according to “Supersoaker” director W.I.Z., that was precisely the point.
“The Kings make serious rock and roll music, with the wisdom and panache not to take themselves too seriously,” he wrote to MTV News in an email. “[We wanted] playful, sensual ideas of teen angst, rock and roll and Americana; we wanted to a make a piece that was urgent as well as effortless, precision with abandon.”
And in keeping with those themes, W.I.Z. — who’s directed videos for Oasis, Marilyn Manson, and Kasabian — filled the “Supersoaker” clip with over-saturated colors, texts and pop art, casted a gaggle of models, ran the footage through a gritty, Super 8 filter, and basically let the band be themselves. Or, as he put it:
“My inspiration is the hungry beat of Nathan’s snare drum and the soul in Caleb’s rasping voice,” he wrote. “The look is an imagined hybrid of pop-art screenprint, hand tinting and Technicolour film.”
Now that’s some prime director-speak. And though some may want to read even deeper into “Supersoaker’s” style and sentiment … especially in these Instagrammed times of twerk, well, W.I.Z. advises them to stop digging, sit back, and enjoy the video for what it is: a kick-ass rock and roll clip, one that, like the Kings themselves, is defiantly not of these times.
“If it’s ‘fashionable,’ start looking elsewhere baby,” he wrote. “Be ahead of your time.”
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