These New Puritans Unveil Stunning Animated Video for ‘V (Island Song)’

A warning against bathing, attempting suicide or maybe both, These New Puritans' new animated video for 'V (Island Song)' makes for seven minutes of rather intense viewing. The clip opens with a woman asleep in a tub, perhaps after trying to off herself with pills, and from there, it spirals into a nightmarish series of scenes involving a movie theater, baby carriage and wrecking ball. At one point, our heroine is chopped up, spread over crackers and served to guests at a high-society party.

It's a lot to take in, but there is a rhyme and reason. Band member Jack Barnett wrote the treatment, apparently drawing on ideas he had while recording the tune in the studio. Jack, who founded These New Puritans with his twin brother, George, is known as the group's "introverted, obsessively perfectionist" leader, and his attention to detail is evident in both the gorgeously animated video -- directed by Picnic -- and in the song, a hushed, murmuring orch-rock piece from the U.K. outfit's third album, 'Field of Reeds.'