Gwen Stefani, “Cool.” Interscope, 2005.

This expensive costume melodrama was a product of the prolific Sophie Muller, who made her mark through extended collaborations with Annie Lennox and Sade in the late-80s, and found a place in the alt-pop firmament in the 90s with videos for Hole, Garbage, Jesus & Mary Chain, and Blur. In her work with No Doubt and later Gwen Stefani, her style lost some of its edge but intensified visually—building on exaggerated film saturation, tricky editing, and manipulation of the musician’s public image.

The arc of “Cool” is almost completely described in the material of its costumes and the timing of its match cuts. While her other productions have occasionally turned out more like fashion editorials than music videos (cf., The Killers’ “Mr Brightside”), this one comes together due in some measure to Stefani’s acting—which is remarkably good, allowing to the fact that is mute and sliced into quarter-second takes. In the final shot, cooperating weather conditions make for one of the more satisfying MTV fade-outs. Dallas Austin, a seminal New Jack who masterminded TLC and penned “Motownphilly,” wrote the track.

Comments

1. ↩ doorknobs / 5 March 2010

   This song is so underrated.