The 5 Best Videos Of The Week

straight2video

The 5 Best Videos Of The Week

straight2video

After a couple of monster weeks, the music-video gods finally fell asleep on us this week, giving us warmed-over ideas and slopped-out murky execution and very, very little to get excited about. There are good videos on the list below, but many of them are videos that would’ve missed the top five during a busier week. The one major ray of light: Arguably the greatest music-video artist of 2014 coming with a new one that fits beautifully with what he’s already been doing. This week’s picks are below.

5. Joey Bada$$ – “No. 99″ (Dir. Rik Cordero)

It’s not an especially original vision, and the fake-new stuff always comes off at least a little bit corny. But anytime a young artist can put on a hockey mask and swing a flaming baseball bat at the camera, he has to do it, you know?

4. Trust Fund – “Cut Me Out” (Dir. James Hankins)

There are many, many good reasons for just about everyone to film every music video in a doggie day care. In fact, I can only think of one reason not to do it: Everyone will be smiling so huge and so constantly that their faces will look slightly weird.

3. Twin Shadow – “Turn Me Up” (Dir. Alex Turvey)

That whole hyper-stylized blank-background negative-space thing has been helping singers look cool ever since David Fincher was making Paula Abdul videos. May it continue to help singers look cool long into the future.

2. OFF! – “Meet Your God” (Dir. Jimmy Hayward)

In the Kung Fu Panda movies, Jack Black played the voice of a bear who kung fu fights. In this video, Jack Black plays an insane person who kung fu fights against a bear and who also bleeds profusely and eats his own intestines. I guess what I’m saying is this video is better than the Kung Fu Panda movies.

1. Perfume Genius – “Fool” (Dir. Charlotte Rutherford)

According to comments-section head Silas Wegg, this video is full of references to late-’80s and early-’90s videos that I apparently don’t remember well enough. That’s fine. You don’t need to play catch-the-reference to lose yourself in a strange fantasy universe, and that’s what every one of Perfume Genius’ three 2014 videos has done for us. Nobody right now is doing this thing better.

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