Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 01/18/2012 at 2:14 PM Videos

The Popdust Files: jessie baylin, music videos, santigold, scarlett johansson

Caught up on some of 2012′s earliest singles yet? Great! Now it’s time to catch up on singles and videos! Man. Artists just keep making music and shooting videos, as if it’s their full-time job or something. It never stops. Luckily for you, though, both these singles and videos have Popdust’s endorsement.

SANTIGOLD, “BIG MOUTH”

Can you believe it’s been since 2008 since living genre melange Santigold has released an album? It made enough of a stylistic splash that it seems like there should be more. There will be, of course; her follow-up’s due this spring, and single “Big Mouth” is out with a video to match.

The concept’s apparent almost immediately: live-action Santigold, scribbled/animated surroundings! Yes, the concept’s been done before, but only because lots of people find it charming–and more pertinently, the madcap neon outlining and scene-jumping (the desert! underwater! down the esophagus!) is an apt match for the sort of single whose chorus taunts “big mouth, big mouth, my my my, you’ve said enough” over equally taunting backing vocals and percussion a-clatter. The word “earworm” was invented for tracks like this. (Oh, and there are also ambiguous pop-star callouts, if you’re into hyping up feuds she’ll probably shrug off in a week.)

JESSIE BAYLIN, “HURRY, HURRY”

Folk-pop artist Jessie Baylin is lucky enough to count among her friends Michelle Branch, Kings of Leon’s Nathan Followill (in that case, “friend” means “spouse,” but we’d hope they’re friends too) and Scarlett Johansson. The latter’s enough of a friend to lend music-video directing favors for Baylin’s single “Hurry, Hurry” from album Little Spark, taking her down the hazy, scenic route. It’s also Johansson’s directorial debut! We expect many Final Cut Pro color filters in the future.

The track’s lovely, too, by the way, an utterly charming swoon of a track puffed up by dreamy swing sweeps and background vocals (actually, they’re not far off from the ones in Santigold’s track, if you ignore everything else about how the respective songs sound.) You can hear and download more on Baylin’s SoundCloud page.