It’s funny, Copenhagen native MØ is being referred to as “The Danish Grimes” right now, but she actually sounds a lot more like a Danish Lana Del Rey to me. Either way it’s a win-win because she’s absolutely one to watch in 2013. Both “Pilgrim” and “Maiden” are beautiful songs, featuring soulful rhythm sections filled with fun, stripped-down samples of horns and surf guitar. The video for “Maiden” isn’t much, but I’m actually really enjoying the fun she’s having with the footage used in the “Pilgrim” video. That’s definitely how you make a great video on a budget.
Charli XCX’s newest single samples Gold Panda’s “You” pretty literally, but I’ll forgive it because the song’s still pretty badass. I wish she had done something more with the sample other than simply play the track and sing over it, but you can’t go wrong with Gold Panda’s “You” and Charli’s vocals, like always, are fantastic. For some reason she’s manufacturing lipstick bullets in a factory like something out of a grindhouse exploitation flick out of the Spice Girls’ 90’s. Not sure what she expects to do with those, but at least she looks good while doing it.
Of all the found footage Soul Train-esque dance videos I’ve posted, this one has by far the dorkiest dancing and God bless it for that. The song, “Cafe Disco” is pure disco funk filtered through a House music groove, a little too repetative, but still guaranteed to get you dancing, preferably like a dork.
“Green Garden” is already an early contender for one of the best videos of 2013 with its fun, playful vibe and beautiful melodies and harmonies. The sound of this track reminds me a lot of Nina Simone’s ‘Remixed and Reimagined’ album, a personal favorite of mine, where Simone’s classic tracks were reimagined by modern producers. Laura Mvula’s sound has that aspect of modern and classic combined, and she’s definitely someone to keep an eye on in the future, as her debut album is being produced by the same guy who’s worked with Adele, and we all know how that turned out. Also included is the video for her debut single, “She”, which you’re sure to love as well.
You might recognize Brooke Candy as that weird girl from Grimes’ “Genesis” video, and it turns out that besides wearing crazy costumes and dancing in other people’s videos she also makes her own music as well. She’s a rapper who sings about well, sex and how real her tits are mostly, going so far to show them off quite a bit (pixilated, anyways) in the video. Her lyrics aren’t anything too spectacular (Azealia Banks manages to be just as raunchy but twice as clever) but the beat in “Everybody Does” is killer. It’s such stupid fun that I’ve probably listened to this track 25-30 times already.
Austin, Texas’ Lay Bac make some of the best, most relaxing, fuzzed-out, lo-fi dreampop out there. This is exactly the right kind of fake 80’s retro/revival music that I love listening to. The videos for “Kasumi (孤独)” and “Feel U Again” do feature some NSFW softcore VHS-era nudity, so watch out for whoever is watching over your back, but they are otherwise pretty tame and innocent, and the visuals really fit well with the mood and vibe of the songs.
One of the things I’d like to do this year is catch up with some of the best music from last year that I didn’t post before because, well, let’s face it, I was being lazy. Not sure 2013 is going to turn out any better since we’re already halfway through January without a single post, but let’s try and think positive thoughts, OK? Not sure why I never got around to this video from Marina, but better late than never, no?
It’s final four time, my top four favorite music videos of 2012. Each video that I’ve chosen below contains something unique that makes it so much more than just another great music video. In the future when I think back on this year, this is what I hope I remember about it. With that said, let’s not waste any more time with my pointless drivel. Let’s get to the videos!
4. Futurecop! – The Only Way (feat. Keenhouse)
If you don’t understand why I love this video so much, then I guess you really don’t know me all that well. “The Only Way” is the perfect mixture of 80’s movie nostalgia, cute girls, dorkier dancing and a whole lot of weirdness. Plus unicorns! Not sure what I like more about this tribute to 1987’s Mannequin, the lead actress’ laughably awkward dancing or the song’s unbelievably catchy chorus. No matter where I am or what it is I’m doing, once I hear “Because you know, know, know up is the only way / The only way, the only way out” I’m singing along. Hell, for most of the song I’m usually singing along. Everything about this is catchy and infectious, and this video is definitely a strong contender for the video I watched the most times overall in 2012.
3. Kindness – House
“House” is one of the most unorthodox videos I’ve ever seen and it’s also this year’s video most likely to put a smile on your face and make you feel better about life in general. This is a pretty amazing feat for a single music video, but then again this is one very special music video. The actual song is only played during the final two minutes of its six minute, forty-five second playing time; the other almost five minutes consists of a PBS-like program where Adam teaches a little boy (and thus by extension, us) the components that make up his song. The first minute of the video has Adam speaking directly to us, giving us his treatise on Pop music. It felt exactly like he plucked those words directly out of my brain, it resonated with me so much. A while back I had a friend once say that he thought my general sensibilities towards music were Pop. Since barely any of the music I was listening to at that point would technically fit into the genre called “Pop”, I at first thought he was really off base. But then when I thought about it more what he was saying was actually pretty accurate. While I don’t listen to boy bands or much else you might classically consider pop, pop music is actually much bigger than that. It’s something catchy and indescribable in music that makes us happy, makes us want to dance, hits us in some primitive, primeval pit of our insides that we can’t fully explain. This video doesn’t just play us a fantastic pop song, it shows us how that song is made, through the eyes of a child nonetheless. It’s like a masters class on music appreciation that anyone can enjoy and understand and, I dare say, love.
2. Grimes – Oblivion
One of the big things that the year will be known for is that 2012 was the year Grimes blew up big. Last year she was buzzing around but barely anyone but the most hipsterific bloggers paid much attention. Something happened in 2012 though. As parts of her debut album ‘Visions’ leaked onto the net suddenly everyone started to realize that this shy girl from Canada was making some truly amazing music. I almost immediately fell in love with her sound, as proved by the fact that I was blogging about her almost constantly and I managed to see her not once, but twice this year in concert. While “Genesis” was the defining Grimes song of the year, the moment that really started the snowball down the mountain was the release at the beginning of the year of this video for “Oblivion”. There’s just so much going on in this video and it really benefits from the fact that the vast majority of it is unscripted. Grimes went to a real football game and motocross event and filmed herself singing the lyrics to her song as real life happened all around her. Some of the resulting moments are really magical and memorable, and this video signaled the start of her meteoric rise to stardom. This video is one of my most favorite videos ever, and only reason it isn’t number one on this list was because it was trumped this year by an event that proved to be even more epic than anything I could have anticipated…
1. iamamiwhoami – kin
I know it’s kind of a cop-out to have a 9 way tie between 9 separate videos to be your favorite music video of the year, but then iamamiwhoami is someone who regularly breaks all the rules, usually in spectacular fashion. kin started out as just another random music video for a song called “sever”, which featured a odd, Chewbacca-like man I nicknamed the “Mop Monster”. There was no indication that this would be just a part of a larger whole, and as video after video started to roll out week after week with no announcement and no warning it became apparent that we were suddenly becoming part of something really magnificent. The mystery grew and grew. How many videos was this going to stretch into? Are all the videos suppose to be linked? If so, what does it all mean? I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time before or since watching and re-watching videos, dissecting them for hidden meanings, pouring over lyrics looking for common themes. My enthusiasm for what became her debut album named ‘kin’ grew into almost an obsession where I couldn’t wait until the next week to see if there was going to be another video.
The reason why I’m calling all 9 videos the video of the year is because they really are meant to be seen as a whole. Each video carries extra meaning when watched with all the others, creating a fully realized experience truly unlike much else out there. My favorite video of the bunch is probably “play”, the most upbeat and magnetic song of the group. It’s got this sleazy, sexy beat that goes perfectly with the images of her dancing with the mop monsters in her own mop fur coat. While “play” is energetic and fun, my second favorite “kill” is the most polar opposite of the series in terms of tone and sound. It’s such a sad and tragic song (especially when you figure out what all the songs are about) and it has more than once put a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye from it’s powerful imagery. But above and beyond all of that, it’s just a magnificent song, perfect in design and execution.
Words can’t really explain how much these songs mean to me, and how much the videos represent together as a piece of art. I don’t want to write much more about the songs that comprise ‘kin’ since I’ve already spent so much time in the past writing about them in great detail. I’ve included “play” and “kill” below for you to watch again and enjoy and I’ve put the “mop monster” tag below so you can go back and watch all the videos in the series back to back, just like they were meant to be enjoyed.
We’re getting down to the final stretch here. Videos 5-8 up next:
8. Best Coast – Only Place
Despite the fact the “Only Place” referenced in this song, Los Angeles, couldn’t be more different from where I live, Seattle, I kind of feel like this song is the unofficial anthem to my newly adopted hometown. Not only is there the chorus, “Why would you live anywhere else? / This is the only place for me”, but there’s also the band’s name itself, Best Coast, a reference to the popular local rhyme, “The west coast is the best coast.” The whole package just makes me feel at home and all warm and fuzzy inside, and the video superbly visualizes this ode to having fun. All the video really consists of is the band having fun fucking around, and yet it’s so genuine and free-spirited that you can’t help but watch the video with a big cheese-eating grin on your face.
7. Haim – Forever
Haim’s “Forever” is one of the most impressive debut tracks by any new artist this year. I mean, listen to it. I’ll wait. Have you listened yet? Is this song not badass? Told you. These three sisters from LA know how to rock your fucking ass off. They’re so amazing that I’m kind of annoyed that they bothered to include those motorcyclists doing burnouts in the video. Do we really need them? No, not really. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather see more of the sisters dancing in the salon. The fun they’re having playing together is so infectious that it’s basically equivalent to a war crime to cut away from them. Fuck those bikers. Fuck ’em.
6. Tensnake – Mainline (feat. Syron)
And the award for best looking video of 2012 goes to Tensnake for this gorgeous video for the equally infectious “Mainline”. I don’t know why most American’s are now so allergic to black and white photography. Look at this. Isn’t it beautiful? And the choice to add 90’s-era pastel-colored effects to amp up the video was a brilliant choice. In a year filled with 90’s nostalgia, this song more than any other grasped the essence of what the decade was about while elevating it to new contemporary heights. It took me about five seconds of listening to “Mainline” to realize that this was a goddamn brilliant song. Man, I love it. In a year that will probably be better remembered for the shit Skrillix put out, club music should be remembered for this gem.
5. Flight Facilities – Clair De Lune (feat. Christine Hoberg)
While I would have rather preferred to include Flight Facilities’ “With You” on this list, arguably the greatest song of 2012, I did find the video for it a little lacking. I still don’t get the editing of the video. It feels like they cut the middle part into the end and then I don’t know what. It just feels like somebody fucked something up in the making of it. Despite my feelings that “With You” is the better song, that shouldn’t in anyway diminish how amazing a track “Clair De Lune” is. Flight Facilities have some of the best production values of anyone out there in any genre and it shows in spades with this song. If you haven’t listened to it yet with headphones on then you really don’t know what you’re missing out on. It’s so rare that you can tell a complete story in the space of a single song, and if “With You” failed at that task, “Clair De Lune” succeeds spectacularly, telling the story of two friends whose innocent shenanigans start off with minor shoplifting but then escalate towards a tragic conclusion. It’s a story of that transitional period into adulthood when reality crashes in on you and you realize that things can’t stay they way they were forever. No one wants to let go of that feeling and this song/video captures the melancholy that comes from making that transition in your life.
All right, we’re now at the halfway mark of our journey through the best music 2012 had to offer and with that said we’ve got a lot to get through, so let’s get to the videos!
12. Chairlift – I Belong In Your Arms (Japanese version)
Generally speaking, when an artist re-records one of their songs for a foreign audience the resulting music always seem to pale in comparison to original. I mean, you only need to look at the Beatles’ failed foray into German to realize that this is usually a pretty bad idea. After listening to Chairlift’s Japanese version of “I Belong In Your Arms”, however, the original English language version of the same song almost sounds like a steaming pile of crap in comparison. I could listen to this song on repeat all day long, it’s so good, and it feels like it was always made for the Japanese language. The video for “I Belong In Your Arms” is just bizarre enough to pull it all disparate forces together. It was rather jokingly referred to as “I Belong In Your Armpits”, in reference to Caroline’s obvious lack of underarm shaving, but I think that just adds to the surreal green-screen meets 90’s-internet-computer-graphics nature of the video. This reminds me a lot of all of the different sorts of things I was exposed to culturally at the same time when I first gained interest in Japanese and internet culture. This video for me is like a little slice of nostalgia cut out and placed on a plate for me in dreamy music video form.
11. Icky Blossoms – Cycle
I posted so many videos by David Dean Burkhart this year that I could have just as easily done a “Top 10 David Dean Burkhart Videos of 2012” list, but if I had to pick his best work from this year to include on this list it would have to be this NSFW video for Icky Blossoms’ “Cycle”. Comprised mainly of footage from retro pornography, this fan video perfectly captures the song’s Studio 54/porno chic style and attitude. This song feels exactly like what you’d hear in a seedy disco, and bravo to David Dean Burkart for carefully editing together some of the most lust-filled glances of the genre without actually making the video seem obscene.
10. Tours – Low Life (Feat. Steffaloo)
In college I became quite obsessed with DJ culture and the DJ’s magical ability to take a record you were familiar with and change it into something completely different as if by magic by mixing it with another record, which probably explains a lot about why I like this video so much, making it my favorite non-David Dean Burkhart edited fan video of the year. The source video is actually of DJ Greg Wilson mixing two records together at the same time for the first time on UK television (you can check out the original video here) and I think watching him go about making history is the perfect backdrop for what is absolutely one of my favorite songs of 2012. The song’s dark, chunky melody pulses and flows over you like a dancefloor call to action, with Steffaloo’s ethereal voice calling out from beyond the darkness like a lighthouse’s guiding light reaching out to a ship in a storm. I can only imagine what this song would sound like in a club, with the pulsating bass pushing its way through your skin, right into your very soul. You can’t ever really go wrong with Tour or Steffaloo separately, but put them together and whoa, you’ve got an amazing song.
9. Lushlife – Magnolia
Easily one of the most creative videos of the year, “Magnolia” is yet another shining example of how sometimes it’s the simplest ideas executed perfectly that make for the best music videos. Lushlife made everyone else jealous this year by simply turning every word of the song into a cardboard mask and editing them all together in different settings to the lyrics of the track. The song not only looks like a million bucks with practically a non-existent budget, but it sounds dope too. Plus, you’ve got to love any hip-hop song that dares using a harp for the majority of its melody.
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