Fridge / Foster the People

Fridge Brilliance

• The music video to "Houdini" seems quirky, yet the concept of dead musicians later cyborg-ified didn't seem to tie into the song itself, which makes is quite blunt in its reference to magic. Then reading an interpretation of the song where somebody took it as Mark Foster seeing his job as a songwriter akin to a magician; he performs with instruments and words like how a magician works with smoke and mirrors yet they have to sacrifice something personal about themselves. Suddenly the music video clicks with a great underlying meaning: the members being dead can be taken as a metaphor for their lack of creative control and being cynically manipulated by record executives and the producing team, the music video makes their artistic freedom the personal thing they sacrifice. The scene where they turn into robots takes this up to eleven where they're basically becoming mouthpieces and profit-makers instead of producing their own vision. Mark Foster uttering the chorus as he's being cyborg-ified places a new meaning on the words:
  Got shackles on, my words are tied
  Fear can make you compromise
  • Note the irony in the bridge at the end in relation to the video:
    Focus on your ability
    Focus on your ability
    Gotta focus on your ability
    Focus on your ability
    Then they can't get what they want to steal
    Can't get what they want to steal
    Then they can't get what they want to steal
    Can't get what they want to steal
  • Now go back to the video during this line where at this point they are essentially just robots and former shells of their previous selves, the next scene emphasizes this with the music team celebrating while their bodies are lying on a pile of confetti. Turns out sometimes you can get what you want to steal.