POPSCREEN: Patrick Wolf

It’s hard to ignore the familiarity of Patrick Wolf’s video for “The Magic Position.” Featuring bright colors, symbolic pigeons, happy dancing people and an orange-haired Wolf, the video manages to invoke Rodgers and Hammerstein, Mary Poppins, and David Bowie simultaneously. The point is, we’ve seen this before in a music video, and can’t help but compare it to something like Björk’s “It’s Oh So Quiet.” Thus, a primer: How To Make Music Videos Into Musicals. Let’s go point-by-point.

Wolf’s video begins with an illuminated sign reading “The Magic Position,” evoking all the subtlety of a cabaret. When Björk’s video began with a close-up on a rusty faucet, we had no clue that seconds later she would be prancing about with uniformed auto mechanics. Thus, Lesson One: surprise us. Music videos ought to have tricks. Songs are brief, and the audience should be riveted for all four minutes.

Next, we see Wolf slouching along, creating weird body shapes with his limp form. On the other hand, adorable Björk charmed, unabashedly leaping about while wearing a dress like a lampshade. Lesson Two: hey there, rock star, kill your self-consciousness before it kills your charisma!

Overall, Wolf’s video is badly timed, poorly conceived, and tiredly executed. Instead of Björk’s lighthearted jumping on cars, dancing with a mailbox, and flying through the air, we get Wolf reviving a dead motorcyclist, wearing a leopard print hoodie (or oversized potato sack?), and surrounding himself with uninspired dancing townspeople. Lesson Three: Don’t attempt a vintage trope unless you have something to add.

The music video musical concept is well-worn, but it can be candy-coated wonderful—if the confection comes to life with the right spoonful of imagination.