The third single from Brooklyn-based indie-pop group Yeasayer‘s sophomore album Odd Blood is a song about failing the one you love the most, sung from the point of view of the failure (the failure, presumably, being a professional musician who’s always away from home and who may crave the adoration of a crowd more than the peace and quiet of domestic life). The self-loathing inherent in the song (heightened by recurring, wordless falsetto chants) is on full view in the song’s video where the singer is depicted as a repulsive little blob of subhumanity which has nevertheless won the love and devotion of a hot California blonde. Unlike the band’s previous videos which have the look of 70s and 80s vintage sci-fi, the video for “Madder Red” could be the latest Katherine Heigl vehicle. The song is, to my mind, the strongest track on Odd Blood, and it’s been near the top of my personal playlists all summer. But I’m not entirely sure this is the best way to hear it. The video’s great, but I realized I wasn’t listening to the music at all while I was watching it.