Unabashed romanticism, Los Angeles at its most cinematic, and Millie Bobby Brown. The new The xx video - Alasdair McLellan's third for a track the band's third album - is something to behold.

McLellan collaborated with Raf Simons, designer at Calvin Klein, on the concept and direction, and this is undoubtedly a very fashion-oriented music video. That could have made it off-puttingly pretentious. In fact I Dare You is very hard to resist. Its a capsule of summer love that is itself a love letter to Los Angeles, made timeless by photography that's beyond gorgeous.

There's plenty for the cineastes to mull over and guess at the references. The opening shots, with Millie Bobby Brown in school uniform, daydreaming her way to missing her bus, is so lush it could be from the 50s (Rebel Without A Cause?), the house where the kids gather to dance from the 70s (Chinatown?). The lushness spills over with the band performance, the trademark black figures against blue going from Technicolor to lo-def video. 

And most importantly, there's the romance of it all. It's shameless, and it never gives up.