10 Greatest Rock Music Videos Of The 1990s
3. Blur - Coffee And TV
Another cut from the brilliant mind of Garth Jennings, this heartbreaking video makes little effort to clarify the lyrics of one of Blur’s most gnomic tracks, instead telling the tragic tale of Milky the milk carton, who comes to life on the dinner table and embarks on an odyssey across the city.
The anthropomorphised vestibule is delightfully simple - it’s just a cardboard carton with a crude face and some limbs, but you can’t help but fall in love with Milky as he jauntily struts through the streets. He narrowly avoids danger - an errant lawnmower, some kids kicking cans. He falls briefly in love with a pink carton which is quickly squished, and eventually makes his way to the Blur lads.
Graham Coxon, the song’s writer, sees his face on the carton and returns home to his worried family, but he quickly becomes the villain of the piece, emptying Milky of his contents and lobbing him in the bin. Thankfully, we see the spirit of Milky ascend to heaven.
Jennings has a good six minutes to play with here and produces a video that’s now every bit as well remembered as the song itself, even if it’s a real tearjerker.