Riding Along on Wye Oak’s “Holy” Roller Coaster
“Holy Holy” was my favorite track on Civilian upon the album’s initial release, a woozily seductive summary of everything Wye Oak’s moody midtempo songs do best that takes its sweet time to hit you with the full force of its chorus. So it’s exciting to see the song soundtrack arguably the first video to prominently feature the band itself–Wasner and Stack had little more than cameos in the clip for If Children’s “Please Concrete,” while The Knot’s “Sight, Flight” and the first Civilian video “Fish” featured actors and animation, respectively.
Throughout the “Holy Holy” video, director Johnstone uses enough extreme camera angles and moody editing to make a summer day of riding the rides at Coney Island not seem quite so innocent and fun, especially given the ominous final shot. And while Wasner does a good job of keeping a poker face while singing the haunting tune to the camera, there are a few shots where she can’t help cracking a smile as they go up and down that roller coaster again.
Wye Oak - Holy Holy from Merge Records on Vimeo.
