Earlier this month we clued you in about Serj Tankian’s new single “Figure It Out”, from his upcoming album Harakiri. I described the track as a crunchy, manic political rocker with a rather blunt lyrical style (at least with the chorus “CEOs are the disease”). Yesterday, Serj released the official accompanying video for the track which is, unsurprisingly, also manic and rather direct.
Playing off the Occupy Wall Street zeitgeist of the time, Tankian intersperses video of every day protesters with shots of fat cat CEOs throwing around cash, smoking cigars, popping champagne, and enjoying the company of attractive call girls in a “Bailout Party”. Meanwhile, the band plays on over a background of stock tickers and jump cuts. As the song builds, the protesters break into the building, ultimately exposing the greedy CEOs in the middle of their revelry, and as Serj smiles and holds the camera, the mob descends on them.
It’s a high energy affair, though if I may be blunt myself, nowhere near as creative or subversive as the fantastic child terrorism of his single “Empty Walls” or System’s robot party crashing of “BYOB”. But at the end of the day, it gets the message across and fits the song. And who doesn’t love watching Serj jump around like the brilliant ball of energy he is?
Let us know what you think in the comment section below!