The 5 Best Videos Of The Week

The 5 Best Videos Of The Week

This has nothing much to do with music videos, but I saw John Wick: Chapter 2 last night, and you motherfuckers need to go see John Wick: Chapter 2 right fucking now. I mean it. Leave work. Because this movie fucking rules and I’m not going to be able to talk about all the amazing gunfights in it with people who haven’t seen it. Goddam, what a great movie. Fuck. This week’s picks are below.

5. Dirty Projectors – “Cool Your Heart” (Feat. D?WN) (Dir. Noel Paul & Stefan Moore)

Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that you’re a brainy indie rock star. And let’s say that you find yourself, in your own music video, stepping out of a fancy car with a former member of Danity Kane, the film speeding up and reversing like it’s an old Missy Elliott video. Maybe this would plunge you, too, into some self-indulgent philosophizing on the state of your genre. Just saying.

4. M.I.A. – “P.O.W.A.” (Dir. M.I.A.)

M.I.A. used to be much better at some aspects of pop stardom than she is now. But she is still as gifted as ever at coming up with an image that will sear your retinas and embed itself in your brain. There are at least four such images in the “P.O.W.A.” video.

3. Wild Beasts – “Alpha Female” (Dir. Sasha Rainbow)

An unbelievably badass documentary-ish clip about women skateboarding around India. This could’ve been an M.I.A. video, and that is obviously a great thing.

2. Chance The Rapper – “Same Drugs” (Dir. Jake Schreier)

The prettiest song on Coloring Book comes to life in the form of a strange and beautiful vision of cartoon melancholia. I like the idea that this could be an early sign of Chance, an artist as irrepressibly positive as we’ve ever seen, pivoting to begin addressing a dark new time.

1. Grimes – “Venus Fly” (Feat. Janelle Monáe) (Dir. Grimes)

Now that it’s no longer behind the Tidal paywall, we can all delight in the images of Janelle Monáe swinging a flaming sword and of Grimes crawling out of blood-muck like a pop-star Cenobite. For that, we must all be grateful. The closing credits of this video are more visually arresting than 97% of the videos I watch in my capacity as Guy Who Writes About Videos At Stereogum.

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