What do you do when you don’t have an original idea for a new video? Why not recreating an old one? That was Aimee Mann’s choice for her song ‘Labrador’ and probably the original part of the deal was to make us believe she had no choice but doing it! At the beginning of the video, she announces, as a warning, that she thought it was a stupid idea and was basically tricked while signing a contract!
The video for ‘Labrador’ replicates quite loyally the one made for ‘Voices Carry’, Aimee Mann's 1985 hit when she was with the band ‘Til Tuesday. You can judge by yourself as you can compare both videos below! It’s true that you don’t see videos like these anymore, with a story playing like a mini Lifetime movie… it looks a little, oh let’s just say outdated, but I believe that was the ironic point!
‘Mad Men’s Jon Hamm plays the fictional version of Tom Scharpling, the video director, and Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster plays Aimee’s stupid boyfriend. As a matter of fact, both songs, the old one and new one, involve idiot boyfriends, but have basically nothing to do with each other musically speaking! ‘Labrador’ has a strong hook with Mann’s typical vocal harmonies but the most surprising of all this, is that, from spiky hair to her current serious-glasses look, Aimee hasn’t changed a bit!