I am a big fan of the Pistol Annies, so that’s the perspective I take all of their material from. I love their sassy, edgy, feminist-tinged wit and their incredible singing and songwriting credentials, and for me their latest single, ‘Hush Hush’, is a great example of that. However, when I came to the see the video, I was somewhat disappointed.
The storyline is set within a small town church gathering, and Miranda, Ashley and Angaleena are housewives. The coloring is bright and at times saturated, and underlines their attempts of parody of ‘perfect’ American suburbia. Much of the video revolves around the women gossiping, the lines of the song mimed as if spoken in conversation, over-accentuated to further the impression of parody. This is interspersed with shots of the gathered congregation, sampling the food and as time progresses beginning to ‘misbehave’. This is all fine and a good, enjoyable interpretation of the song. However, I do have some issues that extend into their wider image as a band. Firstly, one of the scenes depicts them in ‘sexy’ clothing; leather, lace and corsetry in abundance, and Angaleena’s boobs looking like they came out of some cartoon porno.
This has no connection to the storyline and presumably how they’re representing themselves as a band, outside of the narrative. I’ve seen them in similar clothing, both in performance and in their album sleeve, and it’s beginning to get on my nerves to be honest. I’m all for women showing off their sexiness but it seems to have become their trademark, and I think it really cheapens them and their music. It’s so over-the-top that it’s unnecessary, and isn’t what their music is about. That’s only to add to their over-exaggerated appearances as housewives within the video, that could be argued as a continuation of the parody, but their excessive fake tan (which I’ve seen outside this video in other imagery of theirs) looks stupid, and Miranda’s hair stretched back over her head leaves her forehead looking quite laughable. That sounds bitchy of me towards the women and I don’t mean it to be; but it makes me cringe when I see it. I want them looking more natural regardless of intentions of parody, because I don’t think cartoonizing themselves (like a modern-day Dolly Parton) fits their musical output and it saddens me that they should be perceived in this way.
Other than that I enjoy the video, but I have to say I much prefer the Pistol Annies’ audio over visuals these days.
You can watch the video for ‘Hush Hush’ here:
For The Country Record 