Tokio Hotel: Girl Got a Gun

by Justine

I had originally planned to write on a completely different subject this week, however, Tokio Hotel just happened to release their new video for second single Girl Got a Gun from their long awaited album (I'm talking 5 years here!) Kings of Suburbia.

The boys have announced that they will be releasing three singles before the whole album becomes available in early October. The first single released was the very un-Tokio Hotel song, Run Run Run. Now I admit, upon hearing the song for the first time, I wasn't quite sure. My favourite TH songs had always had more of a rock feel and I loved the messages in the lyrics. It took a while for the song to grow on me but eventually I was able to accept that a lot can change in five years. They grew up in that time so naturally the music should be different.

I know a fair bit of TH fans were disappointed upon hearing Run Run Run as Georg and Gustav (the G's) seem to have been excluded. The music video released shortly after only featured the twins; Tom on the piano with a cigarette close by, and Bill sitting on a speaker wearing insanely high heels and sporting a short, blonde look - significantly different from the mohawk and lion's mane us fans were used to. The video is completely in black and white with a play on light. Bill's voice sounds quite different although it's probably the result of some auto-tune. The lyrics however did seem to have some resonance with the past TH but it still took some getting used to.

Now, onto Girl Got a Gun. The single was released last week and I was thrilled to have it pop up on my phone that morning. I was a bit disappointed at the song length (2mins 46? Really?) but in any case, having earlier accepted that TH have changed, I took to this song more easily. It certainly didn't sound like anything that they'd done before but it was catchy - especially considering the chorus only consists of the words "Girl got a gun, girl got gun gun gun, girl got a gun, girl got a gun, bang bang" repeated over an over. It's like some strange tongue twister! The rhythm and beat are pretty good so no complaints there.

Naturally, having taken to the song, I simply could not wait until the release of the video! In my head I was picturing the production that was Automatic or Monsoon. I had been obsessively checking YouTube and their website until they finally announced that it would be release on the 23rd of September.

What. The. Hell. Did. I. Just. Watch.


Not only does this start of with a guy in an elephant suit lying in a gas station, but the fact that the lower half of its body is blurred out makes me think this suit is probably...uh...anatomically correct. There are also ping pong balls that seem to be flying out of that region so I'm thinking this weird elephant thing is, well, not just lying there if you catch my drift. It then proceeds to slip a note under the door reading "I'm dumping you" which is picked up by a very angry blue (yes I said blue) woman on the other side of the door. At this point I'm assuming she's the girl with the gun. She calls up her pink friend and a black woman sitting on a toilet with eyebrows from hell. Yes, I did just say she was sitting on a toilet. She has some choice words for the elephant guy...

The guns come out and elephant guy continues to...God this is uncomfortable..."pleasure" himself. Long story short, pink lady and angry black woman turn up to join blue chick and they start shooting up the place (bang bang). Cue random shot of Tom (I'm assuming) on a motorbike followed by a very strange, crawling-on-the-floor-with-a-weird-mask-and-no-shirt, sequence by Bill (whom I've identified by the tattoos). The video ends with blue chick shooting the screen, cue shatter. This video also uses the most annoying jittery rewind type feature thing which is really unnecessary.

I get that maybe they were going for a whole female empowerment thing. It actually made me think of Kill Bill with all the desert shots and the revenge aspect although significantly more disturbing. Yes, I did just say more disturbing than Kill Bill. What on earth were they thinking? It's like this crazy combination of Coldplay's Paradise video meets Kill Bill meets Hindu deities...what?

Tell me honestly that the blue chick doesn't look like Shiva...

I'm hesitant to be critical given their voiced concern about how this album may be received. They've been working on it for years and are obviously quite proud of it. While I completely respect that, WHAT ON EARTH WERE THEY THINKING?! This video is uncomfortable and weird, and not in the good way either. I'm not saying they should go back to what they were, but for the love of all that is good, NEVER do anything like this again!

That being said, I still have hope for the rest of the album! And I am thoroughly hoping the videos to come will be a bit more...tasteful.

CUT

2/10 (and only because the actual song is pretty good)