Video: Jonas Game: "New City Love"
Obsessive visitors to the labyrinthine website for Swedish imprint Sincerely Yours (run by the Tough Alliance) will already recognize the instrumental hook from Jonas Game's single "New City Love"; a brief snippet drifts out from one of the current index pages. The song's video shows the ex-Bad Cash Quartet frontman looking less like your typical Salvation Army-chic Swedish popster and more like another musical Game, conspicuously shirtless and wearing a New York Yankees cap. Quick, somebody tell G-Unit.
The clip is a bit of a muddle, superimposing shots of Game over palm tree-laden images of what appears to be Southern California. The sun keeps refracting against the lens. On first impression, the track itself might sound innocuous enough to be a sequel to John Mayer's (underrated!) "City Love", jangly acoustic guitars brushing up against Tom Petty-like electric ones. But there's some devilish idol-desecration going on here: "Come as you are/ As a friend/ As I want you to be." It's an example of Sincerely Yours' use of Situationist ideas, which also informed the original punk movement. I'll play your game, Trebek.