Rachael Yamagata - Elephants (Video)

What this video is

Released in September 2008, the 'Elephants' video arrived at the apex of the late-2000s singer-songwriter resurgence that saw Norah Jones, Feist, and Fiona Apple open radio and MTV to piano-driven confessional music. Yamagata's second album marked her transition from RCA to Warner Bros. after a four-year label hiatus, and the song's animal-metaphor structure — elephant (memory), tiger (ferocity), hawk (predation) —…

Why it matters

A keystone artifact of late-2000s adult alternative / indie folk crossover, 'Elephants' exemplifies how Warner Bros. marketed literary singer-songwriters to a post-Norah Jones audience. Its dark, smoky alto delivery and densely poetic imagery — frequently compared to Fiona Apple — represent a…