IDLES tapped Michel Gondry and Olivier Gondry (with a little help from their friends at WeTransfer) to create a fun, high-tempo cut-and-paste video for “Model Village”, addressing the myopic way of life, filled with mainstream news hate and legal drugs, prevalent in a lot of small communities.
EDIT after the album came out: Not sure how I feel about the lyrics after hearing the whole album. As someone who grew up in a small village, I get the love/hate relationship you can have with it and there’s no denying bigotry in smaller communities is a real issue, but the overall effect of the song is a bit condescending, especially in the context of the album shifting a from the more personal, deeply affecting approach of the previous albums to what feels like a more of a righteous attitude. But you can make up your mind yourself, right? Video and lyrics below.
From Ultra Mono.
Lyrics:
“I beg your pardon / I don’t care about your rose garden
I've listened to the things you said / You just sound like your scared to death”
“A lot of nine fingered boys in the village / They haven't got much choice in the village“
“Model car model wife model village / Model far model right model village”
“They ain't too friendly in the village / There’s a tabloid frenzy in the village”
“He's not a racist but in the village / Gotta drive half cut in the village”