Video Decoder: Aqua, ‘Playmate To Jesus’

We open on a spooky house in the middle of the woods. Shitty Euro disco pumps terrifyingly out of it. What hideous beast dwells within?

The smoke monster from Lost rears its ugly head. To whom does it answer?

Clad in the Satanic hooves of Lady Gaga, Lene Nystrøm stands ready to face whatever comes her way, be it good, evil, or something undefinable.

René Dif's sick tribal Celtic tattie, vest-hoodie combo, and blank expression are all nods to the era in which the band came of age, that intense hive of cultural activity that was the mid-late nineties. Aqua keeps the torch of history burning.

Lene's postmodern get-up is simultaneously nostalgic and forward-looking; the dismembered stuffed animal parts that cover her genitalia long for the comforts of childhood, while her metal finger jewelry knows such things can never return.

Lene's open-to-anything stance echoes the sentiments of the song: she is a creature un-moored in place and time who wishes only to be "a playmate to Jesus." What kind of playmate remains to be seen, but her fetishistic accoutrements point to the Mary Magdalene archetype. Will she undo her topknot and use it to wash nineties-bro's feet?

The grass in this room symbolizes the possibility of new birth, her exposed breasts the healing potential of all human sexuality.

Here, her male companion attempts to sneak a peek, but these vessels of wonderment are reserved for the Lord only.

Mirrored by the dual X's over her nipples, the cross takes on a sort of double meaning. As fetish object, it keeps her immobile, as symbolized by her impossible ballerina shoes. However, she paradoxically finds freedom in this loss of control.

Ignoring the haunted house's useful coat hooks, nineties bro gazes up at the sky and ponders his numerous misdeeds. As many creative souls before him, he chooses religion over practicality, smoke monster over coat hooks, a tribal tattoo over an actually good tattoo.

Revelations achieved, the entire ensemble is beamed back up to their home planet, a place of chilly vistas devoid of blues-based rock. A place called Norway.