Is stoicism a virtue? This is the question asked in Calvin Harris’s new video for the track “Blame,” albeit asked in between shots of young, model-esque women dancing with wild abandon.
Harris and the track’s vocalist, John Newman, play unavailable men in the midst of an existential crisis, each in their own perfectly appointed and urbane homes. What troubles them is unknown, although Newman is pictured in a room designed in the style of the Playboy mansion alongside a woman in black négligée who happens to be unconscious, giving the viewer the idea that perhaps something wicked this way comes.
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Midway through it becomes apparent the video will be more about the women — figures who at first were the window dressing to male angst take center stage. A twist is introduced when one central female figure in each of the vignettes takes a tumble down Alice’s hole into Wonderland, in a spectacular, watery fashion. It’s a subtle reminder from director Emil Nava that this is EDM, where the DJ is never as important to the show as the audience.
