1. "come with me" - ceo (from the album White Magic)
An odd video for an odd song. The whole Faith / Kubrick thing is obvious. But what isn't is why exactly he's sleeping with a Tortoro, using his evil self to pour liquor on his pure self, and lastly, why he plays the song's bitchin' ass synth-inspired guitar solo while wearing an Eyes Wide Shut mask. But really, by the time he comes out of the mist and starts plucking away at the strings of that white Les Paul, does any possible explanation really matter? The explosion of synth glitter accompanied by white doves flying everywhere lets you know exactly what you need to know about "come with me": IT'S FUCKING AWESOME! Homoerotic as hell... but STILL AWESOME!
2. "O.N.E." - Yeasayer (from the album Odd Blood)
In Yeasayer's hipster world, dance clubs are fucked up places. Places where your 6'3 bassist is forced to use what looks like a Korean-made Guitar Hero controller, and your singer is grasping a large crystallized sex toy as he sings. Those two nitpicks aside, the (awesome) upbeat choreography makes everything worth it; and the mood of everything fits the song well. It's a pop song! It should be fun! Plus I love the shot of the bassist going "BUT I WON'T STOP, FALLING LIKE RAINDROPS!"
3. "Bloodbuzz Ohio" - The National (from the album High Violet)
It's interesting that it took these guys, an otherwise colorless band, so long to do a black/white music video. Bloodbuzz is probably the most literal song-to-video adaptation of the year: Dude wears a suit, stumbles in a little dance jig, lays on some grass lookin' sad, sits on a bench lookin' sad, sits in a bar lookin' sad, meanders around a park for a bit lookin'...well you get the idea. Is it so maudlin that it shouldn't work? Yeah, it is. But somehow it does. At least these gloomy guys have gotten a bit self-aware now.
4. "Drunk Girls" - LCD Soundsystem (from the album This Is Happening)
Um, Spike Jonze directed it. Yep
5. "On Melancholy Hill" - Gorillaz (from the album Plastic Beach)
Yay! Gorillaz are back again! Back with another video that doesn't fit the context of the actual music playing behind it the slightest bit. Oh well. "On Melancholy Hill" makes it on here because it's awesome -- and because it's obvious that Damon spent a lot of money getting the video made.
6. "Slow" - Twin Shadow (from the album Forget)
If the video for this Joy Division/Morrissey dream collaboration (in the form of a weird, mustached dark man) looks familiar, it's because it's based on those old pedo-ass Calvin Klein ads from the early 90's. The ads had an older sounding dude filming and interviewing a young model in a cabin-like room, the kind of room that screams "YOU'RE ABOUT TO BE RAPED!" Twin Shadow's "Slow" parodies the whole thing quite well (the video is really funny if you watch the original ad), but also it's somewhat fitting: I don't need a low-budget morose-ass video to accompany a morose-ass song...even if it's a GREAT morose-ass song.
7. "Round the Moon" - Summer Camp (self-released)
Sometimes montages are best. "Round the Moon" is awesome enough as it is, but when you toss in some footage from the Swedish film A Swedish Love Story (1970), it gets even better. The video is real charming, and if you pay attention, you can see exactly where Silversun Pickups ripped off the whole concept (and some of the shots) for their "Lazy Eye" video.
8. "Mr. Peterson (Live)" - Perfume Genius (from the album Learning)
Hate to break it to you guys, but unless a few upcoming releases do something huge for me (and I doubt they will), Learning might be my album of the year. "Mr. Peterson" is heartbreaking enough as it is, but this first-time videotaped performance of it (courtesy of Matador records) makes it even more so. While this is indeed a tribute to a love one who has long passed, it's not the kind of remembrance you'd expect. Hadreas' emotion during the whole ordeal makes it difficult to watch. And I should be prepared; I'm hoping to see him in Brooklyn next month. He winces his face uncomfortably, cries, and at one point struggles just to get the damn chords out on the piano. His stoic blinking as he delivers the line "He jumped off a building" just pulls you in. And for some reason, I can't get over the dust from the light that just kind of floats around the dead black room. It's very haunting.
I know I'm forgetting a ton, but these are just a few I happen to like. Most of them are low-budget, but that's sort of the point. Not really into Lady Gaga's whole ideology where a music video has to cost more to make than the entire damn album did.
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