New Order: Round & Round

"Round and Round" is one my least favorite songs by New Order, despite being a listeneble hit that got a music video made for its promotion. Not exactly one of their best clips yet there's a sense of fine artistry involved, a blend of quietness and hurry that wasn't so often with the music videos of the period.

While the band does not appear except through the fast-beating soundtrack, we are presented through a group of eight female models whose faces are filmed in black-and-white as quick shots of objects and unidentified things quickly pop in between shots. The ladies present two or three variations of facial expression, thoughtful or smiley or just playing with their hair, and it gives the impression that they're not wearing clothes even though we can only see them above collarbone. In a quiet and patient manner we can look at their faces and see their emotions, opposed to the colorful and mysterious bits that flash before our eyes leaving us without a clue on why those things are important or if there's a puzzling idea to fit with the concept given. It reminded me of Andy Warhol's Screen Tests where the viewer watched close-up shots of names such as Edie Sedgwick, Dennis Hopper, Richard Rheem, Lou Reed and Bob Dylan, and how they reacted to the camera.

Whatever the band and the clip director were trying to convey it worked. The song and the album were a hit in 1989 and fans loved it to this day. The positive it gets from me is for its unusual style, different than the typical format of music videos from the period and ever since. 6/10.