The Strokes Mark Opening Day With New ‘Ode to the Mets’ Video

Friday marks Opening Day for the New York Mets’ COVID-abbreviated 2020 baseball season, and to celebrate the Strokes have shared the video for their New Abnormal closer “Ode to the Mets.”

According to the band, the video was inspired by the waltz-through-history seen in the opening credits of the sitcom Cheers, with director and long-time collaborator Warren Fu providing a journey of New York City through the gaze of eight different animators.

“Ode to the Mets” is not really about the Mets, and the video also only briefly alludes to the titular team: During an underwater sequence, a battered poster reading “Ya Gotta Believe” — the team’s undying slogan — appears, while another banner reads “Class of ’69,” a nod to the Mets’ 1969 World Series championships.

Another Easter egg contained within the visual is a photo — from guitarist Nick Valensi’s private collection — of the band from their early days. “Yet when you see them in the context of the past without people there, it takes on a more nostalgic, bittersweet feeling,” Fu said in a statement.

The Strokes’ The New Abnormal, the band’s first album since 2013’s Comedown Machine, arrived in April.