The Strokes have reunited with their regular collaborator Warren Fu for a very special project, tapping into the band and director's shared history, delivering incisive political commentary and a range of random ideas - and enlisting legendary puppet outfit Spitting Image to make it all happen.

Following on from the video for Going Shopping, starring Walton Coggins, by the band's creative director Johann Rashid, the video for Lonely In The Future has a similar dynamic, with a serious message enveloped into an irreverent package. But this is arguably more successful in projecting the serious stuff - and a lot of other stuff.

Through the vehicle of the Spitting Image puppets, The Strokes and Warren Fu introduce disparate themes, from right wing media manipulation by a familiar culprit to the glee of tech titans and impending global catastrophe, to intrepid independent journalism, to the groundbreaking creative acts that were originally mocked, and then a modern critic lambasting Johan Sebastian Bach for being 'not good'.

And as this video is 20 years on from the first time that the director and band worked together, the performance section of the videos references previous Fu-directed Strokes videos, like Under Cover Of Darkness and Threat Of Joy.

In a way the use of Spitting Image puppetry adds a further level, another curveball in itself, in a video which bounces between Lou Reed, Rupert Murdoch, Stanley Kubrick and Greta Thunberg - and JS Bach. That harks back to a previous era altogether, which will resonate with older viewers. If they're British, they will remember the TV show and the fact the puppets were first used in the video for Genesis's Land Of Confusion, back in 1986.

Apparently that video had both unsettled and captivated Warren Fu as a child. When talk turned to a puppet video in the vein of Land of Confusion for Lonely In The Future, a few calls revealed that many of the original team from the '80s, including Spitting Image co-founder Roger Law, were still working. And so this remarkable, very special project came into being.

One this is certain, no amount of data or research told The Strokes and Warren Fu they should make this video. But it's brilliant that they have.