[Another guest post from John Perich. Talk back in the comments! —Ed.]

Mike + the Mechanics produced two back to back hit singles in 1985: “Silent Running” and “All I Need is a Miracle.” You can check out the music videos for each on MTV.com. In fact, you’ll need to watch both videos, back to back, to understand the depth of what I’m getting at here.

Clear 10 minutes out of your schedule. Plug in your headphones. And brace yourself, because these are both a little weird.

Seen them both? Here are a few thoughts…

• Silent Running: This is, at first blush, the weirder of the two. Note the odd way the camera swoops down on the house —shot in such a way to obstruct views of any other houses on the block—and the nuclear family clustered around a kitchen table. Every visual and auditory cue implies that these are the only human beings on the planet. Then 80s character actor Billy Drago shows up (recognizable as mobster Frank Nitti in The Untouchables, or John Bly in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr), tells Tommy that he knew his (vanished) father, and gives him a key. And it only gets stranger from there!
• All I Need is a Miracle: Upbeat, catchy pop underscores a conversation between the band’s manager (played by Roy Kinnear, whom you recognize as Veruca Salt’s father in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) and the club owner. Mike + the Mechanics playing to an empty bar? No, that’s the owner’s fault, for calling the band in at the last minute. The sinister bar owner threatens to repo the band’s equipment—including, gruesomely enough, “the guitar player’s right arm”—unless the manager produces 500 quid by night’s end.

Two odd music videos. What’s odder is that they clearly take place in the same universe. Note the band on stage in “All I Need is a Miracle” is clearly playing out the last synthesized bars of “Silent Running” as the video begins.

Are we to presume that the stories of these two videos are somehow connected? We wouldn’t be Overthinking It if we didn’t say yes!