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Music

Watch Martin Creed's Wonderfully Wonky Video for "Princess Taxi Girl Part 1"

The award winning UK upstart sings a song about girls who like cabs 'cos why not? Cabs are great!

Perhaps you don't know Martin Creed, but you should… for his hair alone really. He's a playful artist with a strong Glaswegian accent (although he was born in Wakefield, England. Home to The Cribs!). His installations (like a room filled with balloons) will make you smile. Or they might incite rage, as was the case with his 2001 Turner Award-winning piece Work No. 227: The lights going on and off—an empty room where the lights, you guessed it, turned on and off. One art goer was so incensed he decided to chuck a bunch of eggs around in protest. Back in 2012 his Work No. 1197 set all the bells ringing across England to ding-dong the arrival of the Olympics. Point being, you never really know what he's going to come up with. While his work frequently incorporates music and dance (like 2009's Work No. 1020 Ballet), Creed's actually been clanging around making records since way back in 1994.

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The last time we paid attention to his tunes was when he released his Moshi Moshi record Love to You (which featured the punkishly off killter "Fuck Off"—a song comprised of only those two words). Still genius. Especially when you're pissed and even when you're not. But now he's back with a new 24 track album, Thoughts Lined Up, which came out last week.

Below is the premiere of his video for "Princess Taxi Girl Part I." Musically it's a wonky kind of pop (is that a bassoon we hear?), full of jaunty choral backing vocals and Creed's idiosyncratic tones all of which accompanies a video in which women walk in hair bouncy slo-mo towards black cabs. Oh black cabs. So much more regal than ubers!

"This song is about a friend of mine," explains Creed. "It was written for her wedding. I was trying to describe her and alI I could think of was that she doesn't like to walk anywhere. She just likes to take a taxi."

Keep your eyes peeled for a wee cameo by English supermodel-turned-actress and activist Lily Cole. Who knows where part II will take us…

Martin's album Thoughts Lined Up is out now.