Without any doubt, the same holds true for one of his most celebrated music videos, “X-Ray,” released in 2018. The song originates from his 2018 record YES. The three-minute-long videois beautifully put together by Cash's co-director and long-term creative partner Anna Himma, who in 2020 won the UK Music Video Award for Best Art Production of Cash's music video “Sdubid.“
Turning our attention back to “X-Ray,” Himma's creative directorial style perfectly synchronizes with Cash's provocative nature, enhancing his absurdity without taking away from the video's overall cohesion. Carefully balanced between clarity and obscurity, Himma assembles pieces of a puzzle that create a picture vague enough to keep you guessing, while still being sufficiently decipherable to avoid complete visual anarchy.
Good art leaves you satisfied, but great art frustrates you. It should provoke you, tantalize you. It should elicit an intrigue that draws you back in for seconds, to figure out what you may have missed the first time, instead of being spoon-fed a message so obvious a toddler could understand. Himma succeeds in this because she lets Cash's hyper surrealism do the talking. From scenes of what appears to be a cult led by Cash, to body contortionists creating dynamic tableaus, to forests made of gourds and kale, it's impossible to anticipate what may happen next. What's clear is that in “X-Ray,” we are invited to live in Cash's surrealist, absurd world, far away from the predictable rhythms and habits of everyday life that we may be used to. As viewers, we become guests abiding by Cash's house rules. He calls the shots, and it works.
Some may say this unpredictability is too chaotic, too messy. But such chaos holds your attention and keeps you wanting more. In fact, I would say that this chaos is in perfect harmony with the song's electrifying sound. The song's fast-tempo and electric vocals reinforce the emotionally-charged energy in the scenes featuring Cash's screaming and convulsing cult.
While whimsical and uncomfortable to a certain degree, “X-Ray” is still tame compared to some of Cash's other videos. But taking away from this music video’s value merely because it does not incorporate the same outlandishness found in Cash's other projects is not fair. “X-Ray” contains just enough oddities to elicit dialogue about the project, but not too much as to leave you having nightmares.
“The video is a shoutout to scary horror-core and the aesthetic of another world,” said Cash in an interview with British magazine New Musical Express. By taking something like a cult and having it present on another distant, far-removed world from our own, it seems like Cash and Himma are sending the rather pessimistic message that corrupt human nature—the desire to control—can transcend even galactic frontiers. But perhaps this is reading too far into the video.
Of course, the project is open for interpretation; its ambiguity warrants a degree of thought and discussion about what its true meaning is and what it's trying to convey, if anything at all.
Cash is a provocateur. “X-Ray” is underpinned by his unconventional, freakishly uncanny creative spark that distinguishes him from the same old. Overall, I enjoyed watching “X-Ray.” I highly recommend you take a look for yourself if you want to visit a bizarre, mysterious fairytale land.
“X-Ray” is available on YouTube and other platforms. Watch it here on YouTube!
This article was written by Natalie Jenkins as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.
