Warren Fu directed the music video for “Instant Crush” with production by Daft Arts. He was previously responsible for the album artwork of Random Access Memories, and co-directed the video for “Lose Yourself to Dance“. Tony Gardner and Alterian, Inc. designed character effects for “Instant Crush” and created statues from wax and fiberglass. Gardner previously directed Daft Punk’s music video for “The Prime Time of Your Life” and was involved in the feature film Daft Punk’s Electroma as well as the Alive 2006/2007 tour. Clips from the “Instant Crush” video were released exclusively on French news channel BFM TV on December 5, 2013.^[9][10] The full music video was released on Vevo the following day.

The music video has a 4:3 aspect ratio and has a film-like effect. It involves the love story of two wax figures on display at an exhibition hall: a French soldier who bears a resemblance to Casablancas, and a female peasant on display across him. The video is interspersed with shots of Casablancas singing. The two figures are later put into a storage room where a fire starts, causing them to fall over beside each other and hold hands as they melt. “Instant Crush” contains a brief appearance of the Daft Punk robot helmets, which were originally engineered by Gardner and Alterian. The video was inspired by Hans Christian Andersen‘s fairy tale “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” as well as The Twilight Zone television series.

Commercial performance

“Instant Crush” debuted at numbers 29 and 37 on the singles charts of France and Sweden respectively following the release of Random Access Memories, spending sixteen weeks on the former chart. It also entered at number 198 on the UK Singles Chart and at number 16 on the United States Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.