“Pass This On” is an old song, let’s be clear about that. It’s from 2003, so it’s only a year or two younger than some of the horde of first years crowding out the Barilla Dumpling lately. However, this isn’t meant to talk about the song itself, though there is little question as to whether you should listen to it. Of course you should. No, the music video for this song, perhaps my favourite MV ever, is what I wanna talk about.
It’s one of those videos you find on a 3am Youtube crawl, you wonder what mystical portal it deigned to arrive from. The song had pretty overt LGBT themes to begin with, but this video makes it entirely clear; it’s a perfect, and subtle, case study in masculinity. In short: it’s about doing a little reaching out, a little empathy, a little seduction of the new horizon. The hypnotic performance from the perfectly cast drag artist Rickard Engfors as some kind as aloof, but not cold, sexually hypnotic snake-in-Versace karaoke singer being utterly entrancing. I tried to be as accurate as I could, but little I say can express just how… compelling this music video is. It’s a masterclass in perfectly tying the song’s feeling to the visuals, and looking completely natural in doing so – Karin and Olof Dreijer of The Knife are involved, but there’s no focus on them beyond setting up the ‘this is real life’ feel. Just incomparable.
Is he willing, can he play….
