Real Estate‘s new official music video for their single ‘Crime’ is a delightful dig at the music video medium. In a post TRL world, where the purpose and integrity of music videos are constantly being questioned, ‘Crime’ satirizes the overt sponsorship control displayed in many a VEVO video. Not going for subtlety but rather Meta humor in the vein of Tim and Eric, the video starts with nearly three minutes of dialogue concerning a pseudo contest Real Estate’s video director conducted to accrue money through sponsorship. The rest of the video is a hodgepodge of the contest winner’s artistic choices, including skateboarding vampires and a celebrity cameo. The band itself appears minimally in the video, playing at a Thai food restaurant. The music itself stays true to Real Estate’s form, with guitar riffs carrying a suburban wistfulness and melancholy lyrics with a distinct succinctness. The chorus lyrics, “I don’t wanna die/lonely and uptight” paired with their glowing subdued sound are reminiscent of high school nights in your bedroom wondering what the hell is going to become of you. Their angst isn’t immature but rather youthfully precocious, like the kid who skipped three grades and is showing everyone up in class.
