MNEK Wanders Aesthetic Dystopia in ‘Paradise’ Music Video

The setting of MNEK's newest music video for their track "Paradise" start off in what looks like an expanded universe of Drake's "Hotline Bling" video. Before the audience can get too comfy, though, the images that slide slowly by go from the less obviously ominous pyramids to marble busts with slashes of red spray paint to police in riot gear.

Images get particularly haunting as the lone wanderer onscreen passes by X and the vocals croon "Whenever I turn on my TV it's just misery / I tried to be cool but this world's too cruel." Still, the stalwart figure continues on while viewers are left to contemplate the ever-growing police brutality epidemic.

"What grabbed me was the underlying idea of the different responses elicited by the chaos of the modern world," said video director Ciaran Lyons. "The desire to escape from the real world into a fantasy paradise vs. the possibility of standing strong and separate from all the madness and cruelty, in the hope of preserving something better."

Watch "Paradise" below.

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