The 5 Best Videos Of The Week

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The 5 Best Videos Of The Week

straight2video

Alyson Stoner, the adorable little white girl who danced in Missy Elliott’s videos for “Work It” and “Gossip Folks,” is a grown-up now. She’s been in a couple of Step Up moves, where she plays Camille, Moose’s girlfriend. (She’s also the sister’s voice on Phineas & Ferb.) And she just got a bunch of other amazing dancers together to make a really, truly wonderful Missy Elliott tribute video. It’s awesome. I can’t say enough things about it. I teared up a little bit at the end for no good reason. It’s my favorite music-related video that I saw this week. But it’s not, strictly speaking, a music video, so it’s not on this week’s list. Maybe there’s something in the air, though, since a couple of videos on the list are devoted to the pure kinetic joy of dancing. Not #1, though. #1 is very much its own thing. Watch this week’s picks below.

5. Calvis Harris – “Pray To God” (Feat. HAIM) (Dir. Emil Nava)

The Haim sisters are goofy and fun human beings, but it turns out that they’re amazing at being ice-blooded witches, too. Maybe this has something to do with why they’re so good at making music? Just a theory. I am torn between hoping this video makes them titanic pop stars and hoping they just become titanic pop stars on their own, without cheese-house assistance.

4. Rome Fortune – “OneDay” (Dir. Goldrush)

The background here: Rome Fortune is an expressively weird Atlanta rapper, and his grandfather is the Philadelphia musician who played vibraphone on his Beautiful Pimp 2 tape. If I had turned into a green-bearded rapper, I don’t know that my grandpa would be so happy to show up in my video. But the warmth between these two is just a nice, life-affirming thing to witness.

3. Jungle – “Julia” (Dir. Jungle & Oliver Hadlee Pearch)

I really hope they make an avant-garde Step Up sequel one day, and I hope it looks like this. At the very least, let these guys play the evil possessed street-dancing team who goes up against the Mob at some point.

2. Matt And Kim – “Hey Now” (Dir. Colin Devon Moore)

These two strike me as being very good at being alive.

1. Royal Blood – “Out Of The Black (Version 2)” (Dir. David Wilson & Christy Karacas)

Now that this hyperviolent fever dream exists, hopefully we can convince Hollywood that there’s no need for a Men In Black 4, at least unless it plays out something like this.

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