Ever since we decided to eliminate our weekly video survey (because of the size of our staff and the ridiculous number of videos that are released each week), I’ve thrown all the music videos that pique my interest into a bookmark folder and dumped them all into a video playlist once every month or two. Since I’ve never been a big fan of music videos, this strategy works well, allowing me to dedicate one evening every once in awhile to watching a lot and picking out the best. Here are my picks for the last month and a half.
-Jordy Kasko
M83 – “Midnight City” MP3
Genre: Synthpop
Continuing with the theme of childhood present on their new album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, M83 deliver a great clip to start us off. While the band’s epic single “Midnight City” blares in the background, a group of children with various telekinetic abilities escape the asylum where they’re being held and watch the sun rise. A bit of a letdown at the end, but perhaps they ran out of time from the use of too much slow motion. I kid, I kid. The video’s pretty damn good despite its few missteps.
Rihanna – “We Found Love”
Genre: Pop
Rihanna and a boyfriend wildly act out infatuation and self-destruction, the opposing towers of a bad relationship. It’s serious without being melodramatic (coughRussianRoulettecough) and an interesting juxtaposition to the club pop of the song. Plus, whether you’re a guy or a lady, there’s no denying that Rihanna is hot as hell — and showing a lot of skin.
Coldplay – “Paradise”
Genre: Pop-Rock
From my point of view, this video — which shows the band members, dressed up as elephants, making their way to a gig across the continents — represents Coldplay‘s view of themselves as just a bunch of silly animals who happened to get lucky and be one of the most popular bands in the world. And I like them for that.
William Shatner – “Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen cover)”
Genre: Spoken Word / Comedy
This is the what all art in the entire world was building up to for the last few thousand years. You can go home now. It’ll only go downhill from here.
My Brightest Diamond – “We Added It Up”
Genre: Baroque Pop
Two dancers and some beautiful, artsy shots maketh a pretentious video — but this one avoids that fate (mostly) by not taking itself too seriously.
Man Man – “Piranhas Club”
Genre: Indie Pop-Rock
The wonderfully odd “Piranhas Club” gets a wonderfully odd video where a young boy is bullied by some high school dudes, creates a biker gang — composed of middle-schoolers, incidentally, goes on a “crime” spree, and takes his revenge on the bullies. I love it.
Clock Opera – “Lesson no. 7″
Genre: BritPop
A moving video that shows a teenager bullied until he snaps, becoming violent with everything around him, and then receives a beating in turn. Slightly disturbing, generally thought-provoking.
The Kills – “Baby Says”
Genre: Alternative Rock
One day in the life of a hard-partying crossdresser.
Iron & Wine – “Flightless Bird, American Mouth (Wedding Version)”
Genre: Folk / Indie Pop
A simple black-and-white performance suffices for this string-laden beauty. You may want to consider playing it at your own wedding — it’s certainly less cliche than most of the songs you’ve considered so far.
Seventeen Evergreen – “Polarity Song”
Genre: Indie Pop
Strange masked men pull random thrifstore denizens into an alternate universe where everything is… knitted. Yup. It only gets weirder after that.
Rammstein – “Mein Land”
Genre: Metal
The German metal band beaches it up like Baywatch on this sexy clip — surprising, since the song sounds like it would’ve fit better in some Medieval castle. Oh well. Lots of girls in bikinis, and there’s even a little toplessness near the end. It’s funny cause it’s Rammstein.
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