The Pusher – Blinded By The Dark

Definitely Radio 1 playlist-worthy.

Tim: I present you with a band called The Pusher (recently renamed from Fashion, no idea why), who aren’t so far away from The Script, once you add in a little bit of Swedishness; this is highly appropriate, given that they are in fact Swedish. They have two tracks up on their Facebook page, one of which is also on YouTube:

Tim: I enjoyed this considerably when I first heard it, and I still do. It’s got all the good bits from bands like Scouting for Girls and The Wanted, and then it adds more good bits to make an all round very listenable track, even if the ending is a little abrupt. It’s definitely Radio 1 playlist-worthy, although the chances of that are sadly small to miniscule.

Tom: This is the first case I’ve seen of “nice song, shame about the video”. I agree with everything you’ve said about the track – I could happily see this sitting on radio playlists up and down the country. There’s nothing too novel or interesting here, but it’s not needed – it’s a proper, decent, modern pop song.

I hope that’s not the official video though.

Let me explain: in the last couple of years, digital SLR cameras have got to the point where they can record HD video. That means that everyone who was able to take professional-looking pictures – those depth-of-field-heavy shots where the background’s all blurry – can now record professional-looking video for a fraction of what it used to cost.

The trouble is, it doesn’t end up looking professional. Overcome with this ability to use depth of field, it’s suddenly used all the time – so for a good portion of that video, nothing at all is in focus – until the singer suddenly looms out of the fog. Combine that with the camera’s rolling shutter, which makes the picture wobble and skew, and it’s suddenly filmed in Drunk-O-Vision.

Robyn’s latest video suffers from this as a little well, but it’s on a much better camera, with a cameraman who very much knows how to use it and with lot more footage to cut between. She can get away with it – The Pusher can’t.

Tim: Understand the point, and why it’s generally very annoying, but here I’m not so sure it applies – the whole song is about a relationship falling apart and breaking down, and for me the wobbliness and entirely-out-of-focusness of the video contributes to that. It’s the same style of filming directors often use when the world, spaceship or building is in the middle of being destroyed, and I’m guessing that here they’re going for the same effect.

Tom: Like hell are they going for the same effect. They’ve got a fancy camera and they’re using it.

Tim: Personally I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt, even if this time it’s more like benefit of the massive massive doubt. We won’t discuss the second track here, partly because it’s not as good, but mostly because I can barely type the name without tears of joy springing forth. It certainly proves they’re definitely not English: Blow Me and Run. I kid you not.

Tom: For some reason that reminded me of ‘Stoppit and Tidyup‘. I think I should stop there.