Bright Eyes - Four Winds

What this video is

Released March 6, 2007, 'Four Winds' arrived at a peak moment for the Omaha indie scene and Saddle Creek Records. The song—and its video—channels mid-2000s American political and cultural anxiety through an alt-country performance lens, with lyrics drawing on W.B. Yeats' 'The Second Coming' and sweeping critiques of organized religion and U.S. foreign policy. The video's state-fair setting and participatory…

Why it matters

A landmark of mid-2000s indie folk-rock and alt-country crossover, 'Four Winds' demonstrated that explicitly political, literarily dense songwriting could achieve mainstream critical traction within the indie ecosystem. The video's raw performance-documentary approach became a template for…

The director

Patrick Daughters (born 1976, Berkeley, CA) is an American music video and commercial director. He launched his career at NYU film school with three award-winning short films, then debuted in music videos in 2003 with Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 'Maps.' His…