The 5 Best Videos Of The Week

The 5 Best Videos Of The Week

Music videos constitute an art form, but they’re also basically advertising. They were created so that we’d want to buy music. That’s their point. It’s why they exist. So I don’t know why I’m annoyed that something that essentially functions as a music video — the Spike Jonze Apple ad with FKA twigs and the Anderson .Paak song — is really just an advertisement for something other than music. (It is an advertisement for something that plays music, but that’s just not the same.) If that video really was an Anderson .Paak video, it’d be this week’s best video, but it’s not, so it’s not on the list. This week’s list is below.

5. Coping Skills – “I’d Rather Not (Yeah)” (Dir. Jackie Papanier)

Split-screen videos so rarely work out, but this one, which obviously didn’t have much of a budget, is precise enough to pull the conceit off. And I love the “Hey, that’s me!” part.

4. serpentwithfeet – “bless ur heart” (Dir. Andrew Thomas Huang)

You know the best thing about this video? The clothes. The clothes are otherworldly. (I’m counting the nose ring and the fake beards — the beards that I assume are fake — as “clothes.”)

3. Jon Hopkins – “Emerald Rush” (Dir. Robert Hunter & Elliot Dear)

There are lots of animated videos that strive for trippiness. This one actually achieves it, and it never stops interacting with the music in interesting ways. Both of these things are way less common than you might think.

2. Parquet Courts – “Wide Awake” (Dir. Brother Willis)

I absolutely would not have expected this contemporary band — really any band, but this band in particular — to be able to pull off a convincing Hard Day’s Night-style lads-goofing-off-photogenically video. And yet here we are.

1. Jess Williamson – “I See The White” (Dir. Eli Welbourne)

Every once in a while, great videos happen because directors realize that they’re dealing with honest-to-god new stars, that they should just stay out of the way and let charming and charismatic people shine. This one has great locations and otherworldly sunsets working for it, but that’s basically what happens here.

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