New Justice Single

on Friday, May 02, 2008
'Stress' is the new single from French electropop duo Justice and its video, directed by Romain Gavras, has sparked a lot of internet discussion today. I'm sure the large majority of those reading this are familiar with Justice but perhaps only a handful know the works of Gavras. Well, he directed the recent video for The Last Shadow Puppets and has done videos for the likes of Simian Mobile Disco and DJ Mehdi. Check them out on his [MySpace].



As for the vid (see embed above), it's difficult to say whether Justice are glamourising violence or providing a cutting social commentary. Or perhaps the video was the director's idea? Either way, as music videos from mainstream artists go, this is disturbing. And a bold move. Maybe even a clever one. The video is provocative and people are definitely going to be talking about this for a while.

Justice are well known for excellent promotional videos but this is distinct and will evoke horror in some and excitement in others. The track itself isn't particularly special but I guess the video emphasises the idea of stress. Referencing films like La Haine, we see the public 'stressed' by the gang of youths, who themselves may be lashing out due to some sort of 'stress'. I'm sure someone will come up with a fascinating indepth analysis of the video eventually. In fact, it would be most interesting to hear what Justice/Romain Garvas have to say about it. As I said previously, it's difficult to understand the underlying motive (glamorisation of violence, social commentary etc).

The band put the video version of the song (different from the album version and presumably different from the single version) up for download on their MySpace so I'm making that available here. I'm also uploading Webbafied's take on 'Stress', who I did a post on a few weeks back [read here]. He's done a rap version of the Justice album 'Cross', basically sampling the whole album. It's good and read the other post for more details.

JUSTICE - STRESS (EXTENDED VIDEO VERSION)
WEBBAFIED VS JUSTICE - STRESS

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