In her new video, Kitty shows that all the bad intentions in the world cannot create an engaging music video.
The video for her song “Hittin Lixx” tries to capture the “bad girl” vibe in a dark warehouse, concentrating on debauchery throughout. She ends up with a solidly Hot Topic aesthetic, complete with lipstick trailed across her face to create the illusion of a bloody nose. It is not to say that the dark tones of the video don’t give it the appropriate atmosphere, but it does play into a very easy clichÌ©.
Kitty struts around an abandoned warehouse in jean shorts while swinging a light like a censer. This shot is intercut with her mouthing lyrics into the camera on a bed covered in candles. In both blurry, dark shots, Kitty is swallowed by the scenery and washed with unflattering green and blue tones. Her chameleon-like appearance could be argued as metaphorical, but seems to be merely a problem with the iris control on the camera. The soft focus of the shots implies a toned down visual aesthetic similar to her earlier video, “Okay Cupid”. However, this style does not fit well over the dark, violent imagery, unlike in “Okay Cupid” where she was parading in around in bright colors. A VHS filter akin to the visual style of Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers would have given the video a wider tonal depth while excusing contrast problems as “artistic license.”
The video gains interesting imagery when a crowd of people smashing glass objects and blowing glitter into the camera is introduced in the second half of the video. These shots are well lit and cut fluidly with the motion of its subjects. Using slow motion to its advantage, the video highlights the beauty of destruction in a way that compliments the song’s lyrics and pacing. These bursts of light add contrast to the video’s color scheme and create a better sense of motion and tension. As cool as it is to watch Hot Sugar smash still lit light bulbs, it quickly gets old. At 2 minutes and 47 seconds, it’s disappointing to see that there was such a lack of footage.
Kitty had the opportunity here to either wow us with visuals or tell the small story portrayed in the song, which seemed to have a built in plot arc. It’s surprising to see this video fall apart so quickly, and one has to wonder if the blame can be placed solely on the artist. A producer may have had more grandiose ideas for the video that didn’t make it into the final edit. The video instead relies heavily on Kitty toeing the line between cute and sexy to make up for the lack of content. Though Kitty may be cute, this video is simply not enough story of visual tantalization to hold a viewer’s attention.