Michel Gondry randomly gifting a music video for a song you wrote would be the pinnacle of success in any artist’s career, but for Jack White, this is just another day.
Nary three days after White released his acoustic compilation album, Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016, critically adored filmmaker and previous White Stripes video director, Gondry surprised the beloved musician with a beautifully simple music video for the previously unreleased White Stripes songs “City Lights.” As White plucks his guitar and reaches into his falsetto for forlorn, yet hopeful lyrics, an anonymous person hops into a shower and uses the condensation to illustrate scenes described in the song. Just as the image begins to fog and dissipate, the shower-taker begins to draw something new until the gentle missive of a song concludes.
After you’ve watched Gondry’s understated video—his fifth official collaboration with Jack White/The White Stripes—check out White’s moving performance of “Love Is The Truth” and “You’ve Got Her In Your Pocket” on Friday’s broadcast of The Tonight Show. Clearly attaching something personally significant to either of these songs, White visibly tears up and wipes his eyes while playing. For a man with machine-like work ethic and virtuosic abilities, it is really disarming and humanizing to see him have such a visceral reaction to his own music. In other words, Jack White is the best, and I sure hope this surprise gift from Michel Gondry cheered him up.
What do you guys think of the music video? Pretty neat idea, yeah? Let us know on Twitter.
Image: Kris Krug
