Celluloid Bachelor #36: Ash "Pripyat"

After two days of quirky music videos featuring beloved contemporary indie actors, it is time for something a bit more serious. Today's single from Ash, the Irish anthem popsters, harkens back to a particularly gloomy development from the 20th Century, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Named "Pripyat," after the adjacent workers village that was evacuated following the reactor explosion, the song is about as upbeat as anything about destruction and the act of nature reclaiming abandoned land could be. The visuals, however, from photographer Robert Polidori's excellent coffee table collection, Zones of Exclusion: Pripyat and Chernobyl, are more haunting and unreal, stark reminders of what is left when humans evacuate.

Readers who dig this song should check out the year-long A-Z series Ash is sponsoring, where subscribers receive free singles every 2 weeks for a year. Click here for more information.