From Daft Punk To Gypsy & The Cat: The Best Animal Masks In Music Videos

Have you seen Gypsy & The Cat's clip for their new single I Just Wanna Be Somebody Else yet?

You really should. Aside from being an excellent track in its own right, and the follow-up to March's Inside Your Mind, both it and its predecessor video feature a person in an oversize, really well-made, cat headpiece as their central character. Meanwhile, quite literally yesterday, SELAHPHONIC unveiled their video for Ghosts Of 1999, featuring a rabbit-man as the singer's (clearly terrible) flatmate.

But why the sudden flourish of videos boasting variably tempered beast-people? Sure, it's a neat visual trick to bolster the soundtrack, giving all three clips an edge of weirdness and adding surrealism to otherwise everyday activities, but the humans-as-animals trope is definitely not a new one.

Come, take a walk down memory lane to gawk at some of the most excellent video clips-feat-animal-masks around, then find another well to tap.

Daft Punk — Da Funk (1997)

We're not saying this was the first music video to utilise surreal animal heads on people's bodies, but it's definitely one of the most iconic. The clip for the band's second-ever single, first released in 1995 and later included on their debut LP Homework (1997), focuses on Charles (Tony Maxwell), a dog-man with an injured leg and a rough night ahead of him in the city.

In the 19 years since the release of the video - which just happened to be directed by Spike Jonze, NBD - there has been consistent debate about its meaning and themes, though the dance duo's Thomas Bangalter said at the time that there is "no story; it is just a man-dog walking with a ghetto blaster in New York". As if you needed more story than that.

Brandtson — Mexico (2004)

Terrible song, great clip.

Look, being brutally honest, Brandtson were an utterly middle-of-the-road Deep Elm emo/indie band that existed from the late '90s till the late 2000s, and this song and its clip is literally the only thing they ever did that made any kind of impact on me. And it didn't even get released until after they left for The Militia Group (Cartel, Rufio, Copeland, The Rocket Summer), which should give you an idea of how 2004 this all really was. God, this band were mediocre. And this song is a perfect statement of that. The lazy melodies, the half-time breakdown and back-up vocals and literal beating of the heart area when the guy sings "It's like a heartbreak beat and it's beating out of me," because he's a total dipshit, is painfully hilarious. Nobody's disputing this is a crappy song.

But it's a great clip.

After all, who doesn't love a good "bully gets what's coming to him when nerdy guy finally sacs up and confronts his enemy and the woman who scorned him" tale told with rabbit costumes? Honestly, it's such a generic set of lyrics/so unrelated to the actual song you could actually mute the video and listen to anything and it would still be totally watchable.

bat for lashes — what's a girl to do? (2006)

Hey kids, do you enjoy being made to feel uncomfortable by groups of silent, judgmental, synchronised bike-riding animal-people? I sure hope so, because that's what's for dinner with this video. There's little more to say about it other than that; it actually does a fantastic job of capitalising on the song's already-eerie atmosphere to create an equally unsettling clip. Also, rewatching it, it is suddenly clear to me that I severely underrated this song 10 years ago, so belated apologies to Bat For Lashes.

Plus, the BMX tricks don't hurt.

Since its release a decade ago, What's A Girl To Do? has frequently popped up in lists of "creepiest", "scariest", "most offputting" etc music videos, and it's kind of self-explanatory as to why that is (hint: like 95% the bunny, the presence and prominence of which is almost certainly the fault of Donnie Darko).

capital cities — kangaroo court (2013)

This video, from US indie-pop duo Capital Cities, technically bends the rules a little here, as most of the people in this clip aren't wearing masks or headpieces in the traditional sense — rather a mixture of facepaint and prosthetics — but it's close enough and the clip and song are great. And actually a little disturbing (or at least discomfiting), which I'm pretty sure is the point.

Foxing — Rory (2013)

Another rule-bender, as the masks in question here are especially simple — little more than felt adornments tied on with elastic — but, despite the budget props, it's the overall visual metaphor here — the juxtaposition of unleashed animal instincts, pack mentality and the innocence of youth is a wonderful effect — and being scored by a devastatingly evocative tune that assures the terrified little fox and his dauntless pursuers their mention here.

Gypsy & The Cat's I Just Wanna Be Somebody Else is out now, as is SELAHPHONIC'S Ghosts Of 1999.