Little Simz reunites with Dave Meyers and it's in the most surprising way possible.First of all here's Simz talking on Britpop, as the musical inspiration for Young appears to be Blur's Parklife, with the lyrics of an overheard diatribe from a tiresome 'youth' of indeterminate age. And then there's the maestro American director Meyers, putting his own spin on a few British video conventions.But most importantly - obviously - is Simz's fairly mind-boggling transformation in the video, to dangerous lady of a certain vintage: she's a punk, a rebel and she's about eighty-five years old. She's still causing all kinds of trouble as she makes her way to the pub in her McLaren/Westwood-style punk outfit (designed by Verity Lane).She's an amazing, ferocious comic creation and she ends up, appropriately, performing on stage with a punk band in the back of a pub (The Shacklewell Arms, in fact). An audacious, glorious triumph.

Alexandre Do directs a reflective promo for rapper Jianbo, which follows an old man, whose memories of his late wife keep him going. From the man's daily routine as a busy cook through to dreaming about a jazz club he and his late wife used to frequent, the video for Exhale (Point Hill) blends narrative, performance and dance to create something singular and perfectly suited to the track. Beautifully shot and conceptualised, it's a touching story brought to life masterfully by Alexandre Do and team. "Hearing Exhale for the first time, I knew right away it was special," says the director. "From this moment it wasn’t just about making a cool video, it was about making a beautiful piece of film."The song’s dedicated to Jianbo’s late friend Dom, whose guitar is sampled throughout. I wanted to stay true to that emotional core, so I kept writing until I hit something personal, pulling from my own family, my partner, a memory of seeing a picture of my dad and his friends fresh from Cambodia in the ’70s wearing flared pants. When I first wrote it, I kept thinking of Up’s opening montage and Michael Haneke’s Amour."This film is really about grief, longing, and those moments when you wish you could see someone you love one last time. Jianbo really showed up: learning the dance routine, pushing himself emotionally, and bringing out a side of himself we hadn’t seen in his past videos."

David M Helman and Daniel Henry co-direct a wonderful video for rock band Clap Your Hand Say Yeah, celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut album - featuring a day in the life of the manager of an LA computer repair shop, played by Eric Rahill.To the soundtrack of The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth, Helman and Henry take us through Rahill's character's busy working day, encountering customers and the mindboggling range of outdated electronic goods that he and his introverted co-employee are commissioned to fix.Richly detailed and layered with incident, characters and immediately recognisable outmoded tech, its a hugely engaging, entertaining narrative, brought together by Rahill's superb performance. Above all, it's cinematic in a way that music videos aspire to but rarely achieve. A great achievement by the directors."The project came together in the lead up to the 20th anniversary of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's debut album," says David M. Helman. "This single never had a video and the band really gave Daniel and I creative freedom to run wild."Knowing that this is a signature track of that moment in time, we wanted to make sure that the story resonated and hit those nostalgia pangs. In our minds, old electronics felt like real-world portals to jump seamlessly through time so centering this story around a local computer repair shop provided us glimpses into the past through the devices that pass through the store. Following a local hero played by Eric Rahill who pulls apart and fixes these devices. "It was fun directing this one together because Daniel and I are both products of the early internet and we both had our own similar, but unique bucket of 2000s memories that we both drew from to give the video a maximalist aesthetic. "We feel like in the song there is a duality between the new and the old. And we wanted to make a celebration for the outdated, the incompatible and the base models of all things. Both human and machine."

Sam Fender has reunited with Adolescence director Philip Barantini for a video starring Owen Cooper - the young star of the acclaimed Netflix drama.The video for Little Bit Closer follows Cooper and a group of friends on a camping trip in the Lake District, where Cooper’s character quietly contemplates questions of faith. It’s a beautifully-shot short film that broadly plays on the original themes expressed within the song’s lyrics.The film is largely a character piece, so viewers may speculate on why the boy's emotions bubble to the surface in moments away from his friends. Essentially Barantini has focussed upon another, less sensational but entirely relatable aspect of growing up: the change from childhood to youth, when you may start to consider your actual existence. Fender previously worked with Barantini back in 2021, working alongside him and fellow Adolescence star and co-writer Stephen Graham for the UKMVA-winning video for Spit Of You. That was very powerful and in a quite different way, so is this."It’s so great to be working with Phil [Barantini] again," Sam Fender has commented. "I had no doubt he was the right director for this piece - his video for Spit of You was my favourite."Phil called to say he’d asked Owen if he’d like to be in the video, and that Owen was keen. I was elated that he could do it after seeing his incredible performance in Adolescence. Alongside Semera Khan [Creative Director] and the rest of the cast and team, they have created something beautiful.”Philip Barantini adds: “To have the opportunity to direct another video for Sam was an immediate 'yes' - an absolute no-brainer for me! Not only is Sam an incredible artist but he’s a beautiful human and a great friend! Also, the opportunity to direct Owen again so soon after Adolescence was an absolute joy!"