Low Fidelity: “Sleep in the Heat” Music Video Review

“Stranger Things” has been quickly acknowledged as one of TV’s finest programs, speedily garnering a cult-turned-mainstream following since its Netflix release earlier this year. Appropriately, the young stars of the series have hit celebrity status almost overnight, appearing all over late-night talk shows and the internet in support of their work. Finn Wolfhard (Mike Wheeler), Millie Bobbie Brown (Eleven), Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin Henderson), and Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas Sinclair) are America’s new favorite celebrities.

However, every actor has to start somewhere, and one of Wolfhard’s first roles was in a music video by the Canadian punk band PUP. In 2014, he depicted a young Stefan Babcock (vocalist/guitarist) in the video for “Guilt Trip,” which crafted a dark, fantastical narrative of how the band was formed. It depicts an elementary-school age incarnation of the band brought together by near-death experiences in the woods of a small Canadian town, and closes with the underage punks stealing a van and leaving on an excursion into the great white north.

PUP’s new video for “Sleep in the Heat,” also featuring Wolfhard, takes place three years after where “Guilt Trip” left off. The band is poor, hungry, and relentlessly touring the country to make a name for themselves. However, this all changes somewhat when young Stefan takes in a stray dog, who loyally follows them wherever they travel.

The filming is both whimsical and thoughtful, which gives the video a youthful, sincere, and nostalgic quality. Even though almost all of the cast is prepubescent kids, it still is mature and heartfelt (and then some).

One of the best aspects of the video for “Guilt Trip” is it’s ability to connect the song’s lyrics to certain shots in the video, even though the subject matters of the two are in no way similar. For example, the line “Now that you’re gone, I’ll be back on my own” is sung over a shot of the band’s two original members waving goodbye to each other as one of them is driving away, presumably moving somewhere far away. “Sleep in the Heat” delivers in this sense as well, somehow matching lyrics about getting high and feeling like a loner to a narrative about middle-school kids going on “Stand By Me”-esque adventures.

Not to give any plot points anyway, but “Sleep in the Heat” is a touching and emotional story that pays tribute to the bond between people and their pets. I didn’t start watching this video expecting to cry, but it nearly brought tears to my eyes as the video’s final scenes played out. Not what I would expect for a band whose name is an acronym for “Pathetic Use of Potential,” but I can’t complain. If you like dogs, punk rock, or just really think that Mike from “Stranger Things” is cute, you should give this video a watch.