Univore’s video for “Champagne Taste” is stupendously terrible, a bloodcurdling, horrifying crime against humanity even, and yet…I can’t stop watching. It’s so bad you might be tempted to believe that they were trying to be Rebecca Black bad on purpose, but no. Univore is a real band from Chicago that’s put out three real albums. So what we have here–what god has magically graced upon us–is one of the best/worst music videos ever made.
The production values on “Champagne Taste” are just…wow. The video is the perfect storm of awfulness. The Least Interesting Man In The World is lip-syncing so piss poorly you’d think he was hearing the lyrics for the first time as he was singing them, and he’s standing in front of one of the worst green screen effects you’ll ever see. He can’t stop hitting the screen, causing all sorts of mystical rips in the “sky”, and yet no one thought to reshoot any of this. During half the video he looks like Ricky Bobby trying to figure out what to do with his hands. Then suddenly with no warning he has an Indian headdress on and a floating hand is (poorly) pouring him champagne? This is genius, people.
On their Bandcamp page they decided to share this actual quote that someone said about the band: “[they’re] walking the thin line between sincerity and absurdity so effortlessly that they appear to be floating over a line that was never there.” I have no idea what that even means, but I love it.
The song sounds like Ween, high on pain killers, having a stroke. It’s a jazzy hot mess of epic proportions. I mean, just check out the second verse:
Flashing (fleshy?) red lights / I pull the curb / license and registration, sobriety check / there is a crack rock in my throat (truth?) / I will be the best dressed man in prison / I should not be driving this car (Oh no! I shouldn’t be driving this car!)
Wait, what?! That crack rock line kinda flies right over your head the first time you hear it. Watching the video is a test of endurance, and yet the longer it goes on the harder it is to turn away. The amazing thing about the song is how insanely catchy it is. Just you watch, when you least expect it you’ll find yourself singing “Oh no! I shouldn’t be driving this car!”
Words cannot express how truly excited I was this afternoon when I got the email alert that informed me that iamamiwhoami had released her latest music video. I was even more excited when I realized that “fountain” was a continuation of the themes from kin (aka the mop monster saga), a series of 9 songs/videos that I wrote about extensively in 2012 and collectively named my Top Music Video of 2012. And that excitement was effectively tripled when I saw/heard how amazing this new video was. Thus far I haven’t posted that much in 2014, mainly because I couldn’t find all that much that really got my creative juices flowing. Well, thank god for iamamiwhoami, because I’m now ready to jump right in.
The first thing that stuck out to me about “fountain” is just how darn happy the song is. Its melody veers awfully close to Balearic dream pop territory, filled with a bright, cheerful sound that would seem out of place in the grim, angst-filled kin. There’s shots of majestic waterfalls and explosive geysers and even dolphins at one point. As you watch the video it becomes obvious that “fountain” is a joyful celebration taking iamamiwhoami’s sound in a whole brand new direction. And that’s definitely not a bad thing.
“fountain” is a song about rebirth. Like all of her videos, there’s a lot of symbolism in the video (water obviously plays a huge part) and there are two main images repeated from kin that I’d like to touch upon. This first is of the box. You see it recur three times in the “fountain” video. In kin the box was of course a metaphor for the female protagonist feeling trapped in her life of domestic servitude. Each song in the cycle seemed to pile on the idea that things were closing in on her until we got to that final image from “goods” of the black box that has entombed her. She’s literally boxed in. One of the very first things we see in “fountain” is a shot of a similarly shaped clear box acting as a fish tank (it appears right before the music starts, and I doubt that it was a coincidence). The fish is trapped in this small box in clear view of the big wide ocean right there in the shot behind it. Almost exactly midway through the video we very briefly see burning in the fire another similar box, this time one that looks exactly like the one from the “goods” video. Finally, the last image of the video is of the same fish tank from the beginning, except this time the fish is gone.
We’re left to assume that the box is burnt into the ash that she scatters from the boat shortly after that shot of the fire midway through the video, which leads us to our second repeated image from kin, dust. The mop monsters were a huge recurring image in kin and dust and dirt went hand in hand with them. Jonna was frequently covered in the dust, spoiling the white clothing she started out in (notice how the white outfits are also back?) Back in 2012 when I was watching and writing about these videos it wasn’t until I figured out what the mop monsters represented that I realized that this was what it was keeping her prisoner. But in this video the dust takes on a new, different meaning. Here she takes jar of dust/ash out into the ocean and scatters them like ashes at a funeral. That image I grabbed above of her lying in the boat reminds me also of Viking funerals, a ritual where the dead are placed into a boat, pushed out to sea and burned to ash. To me the obvious metaphor being expressed in “fountain” is that of the phoenix rising from the ashes. She’s taken the box that confined her all through kin, destroyed it, and is now reborn into a new version of herself. Like the fish that’s escaped its cage she’s finally free of her box. And now that she’s free I’m really excited to see what new directions this inspires her to take music in the future. Let’s hope there’s another 8+ videos waiting for us in 2014.
Låpsley (aka Holly Lapsley Fletcher) is the 17 year old singer/producer from Liverpool that created this beautiful track that you are about to listen to that caused the whole internet to collectively flip its shit today. I still can’t figure out what the chorus is suppose to be. To me it sounds a bit like “Parga wahga yu”, whatever the heck that means, but I don’t care if it makes sense or not. It sounds amazing. That’s all her, by the way. To get the deeper male vocal parts she just dropped the pitch in her vocals and made it work.
Låpsley released the official video for “Station” today, but David Dean Burkhart, being the forward thinking genius that he is, put together his own video for the track last Wednesday, using grainy footage from vintage home movies to really heap on the nostalgia to this quiet, understated stunner of a song. As always, he knew what kind of footage would work just right for this project and take the music to a whole new level. Watching the song and video put together, it doesn’t just feel like you’re taking a peek through a window into some other time and place, but you actually feel like you’re living and breathing in the experience, as if you can hear the sweet whispers the couples are saying to each other, smell the fresh summer air fill your nostrils, and feel the delicate heat of the sun reflecting off the water warming your cheek.
[EDIT: I just heard from Låpsley who informed me that she’s “sing singing ‘I could walk you’ btw but I pronounce ‘walk’ fully so may sound like ‘walker’ haha x” Thanks for the heads up, Låpsley!]
After a much needed post-holiday hiatus (that went on perhaps a bit too long, I admit) C’est Non Un Blog is back with more great music for 2014! And to get things rolling (so to speak) I’ve got some really fun roller disco tracks to share with you from a new artist I discovered called Rollergirl. I’ve written about my absurd love of roller disco in the past, so as you can imagine I was thrilled to find a new artist with a similar passion who’s sole purpose is re-imagining roller disco music. “Skater Lady” has a very classic funky disco sound with just enough of a twist to update disco for a new generation.
I knew that I’d seen clips from this movie before (check out Miami Nights 1984’s “Ocean Drive” video) and I was really curious as to what film it came from, so I sent a message to Rollergirl to see if I could track down the name of that movie. Turns out it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. These clips come from 1979’s Roller Boogie, starring Linda Blair all grown up (yeah, that Linda Blair), a delightfully nostalgic look back at a simpler time when the fad of roller skating was apparently all anyone cared about. I got Roller Boogie in the mail the other day from Netflix and I have to say it was pretty much everything I had hoped it was going to be, filled with lots of roller skating (and not a whole lot else), perfect for fans of Breakin’ (who wish that movie had a lot more roller skating in it).
That dialogue you hear at the beginning and end of “#billyocean” is also from Roller Boogie (you can even see some footage from the movie in the background of the video at certain points). I’m not as big a fan of this video as I am “Skater Lady”, mainly because the featured rollergirl in it seems stoned out of her mind for most of the video, but the song is still pretty sick, so strap on some skates and get your boogie on.
You can download Rollergirl’s self-titled first LP for free off of their Bandcamp page.
Well, this is it. The final five. My five most favorite videos of the year. After 6 long days of me saying to myself, “What the hell were you thinking?” and then, “Seriously, what were you thinking?” while writing about 25 amazing music videos, we’re finally at the end, the part you’ve all been waiting for… that’s right, The Final Countdown. Take it away, Gob:
5. Laura Welsh – Cold Front
Laura Welsh’s “Cold Front” is one of the most beautiful, most visually arresting videos of the year. The deft choreography uses shadows and wind to manipulate her body, pushing and pulling her in all directions. It is breathtaking. The editing has a real palatable kinetic energy about it, helping solidify the allusion that the intangible song has taken control and started to manipulate all of her movements. While the video kind of loses me at the end when she gets covered with all of the black goo, everything before that is just perfect.
4. French Horn Rebellion – Dancing Out (feat. Jody Watley & Young Empires)
French Horn Rebellion put out a lot of amazing work this year, just check out here or here. But to my mind the best thing they released all year long was “Dancing Out”, a fantastically energetic he said/she said duet that brings to mind a sunnier version of Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me”. This is the video that made me fall in love with the band, and even after all the other great work that they put out after this, “Dancing Out” is still one of the highlights of my year. Both the song and video follow the story of a boy and girl who are both really into the other, but that attraction naturally makes them really nervous and self-conscious around each other. Unbeknownst to the other they’re both worried about acting like a fool while dancing together.But all it takes is a little magic French Horn solo action to get everyone in the mood to break out into one of the best choreographed cheesy 80’s dance routines ever put to film.
3. HAERTS – All The Days
HAERTS’ “All The Days” is not just one of my favorite songs of 2013, it’s one of my most favorite songs ever. I mean, come on; if you don’t absolutely love this song I question whether there is actual blood pumping through your veins. To call the song epic is an understatement. To do so is to imply that The Lord of The Rings is just a book about a carefree stroll through the woods amongst friends. It’s so good I’m having a hard time finding the right words to describe it. When you listen to it, it sounds like it’s the biggest, most important song that there’s ever been and ever will be. The relentless bassline drives the song forward while the echo-y reverb effect on the drums adds this whole other layer of grandiose epicness to the song. Nini Fabi’s soaring vocals just melt you into a puddle. And I love how the song does a fake-out and seems to end about two and half minutes in (even the dancers start to take a break), only to slowly build back up again and close with one hell of a powerful finish.
I love how the video uses real people of all ages for the dancers instead of the usual Hollywood model types you would typically find in most movies. It reminds me a lot of how in many movies from the 70’s and 80’s you would see normal folks sitting in a bar or roadhouse, because more often than not the film was actually shot in a small town and those extras were the actual people who lived there, unlike most films nowadays where all the extras are fake-looking wannabe actors in Hollywood hoping that their one second of screentime will magically turn into their big break. The choreography in the video feels natural and organic, as if it were the song itself compelling them to dance their asses off, and all the dancers seem to be having a genuinely great time, which adds a lot of extra weight to the video. I don’t know what else to say, really, aside from mentioning one more time that this song is one hell of a masterpiece.
2. Hypnolove – Winter In The Sun (Pilooski edit)
Pilooski’s genius edit of Hypnolove’s “Winter In The Sun” makes the original sound like a mere rough draft. That’s not to say the original is bad in any way. The original version of “Winter In The Sun” is very good and it sounds almost exactly like this version, but you can just tell that it feels like there is something missing, like they knew that they were onto something great, something that was hidden in there simmering right underneath the surface, but they just couldn’t figure how to coax it out. The original felt just a little bit too long, with just a little too many elements going on. Pilooski’s outside eyes nip and tuck the song, keeping the bright melodies and sunny Caribbean beat that makes this the perfect summer song and altering it just enough to make it perfect. It amps up the sex and tightens everything up to pop perfection.
The video is an entertaining retro Euro sex romp filled with accidental discoveries, mistaken assumptions, multi-framed tracking shots, clever juxtapositions and gorgeous cinematography. My favorite juxtaposition is of the son bouncing in the back seat of the car while the wife is bouncing on the delivery boy she spontaneously bedded after finding a condom in her husband’s jacket pocket (it’s not his) and assuming that he’s having an affair (which he actually is). The multi-paned editing builds tension, giving us information that the other parties in the video don’t have access to while heightening the anticipation about whether or not each member of the couple’s infidelities are going to be discovered. The video is almost an advertisement for condoms, the conclusion being that maybe a little carefree safe sex is good for everyone, good for the marriage and good for the soul.
Just in case you haven’t watched this one before it should be noted that the video includes copious amounts of sex and nudity, so a big NSFW tag on this one, alright? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
1. ??? – Track 2
I’d first like to apologize for the cloak & dagger mysterious nature of this post, but I have no idea how long this video will stay up before the internet police take it down, so I’d like to keep things as search engine unfriendly as I possibly can so you all can enjoy this video as much as I already have. Let me explain: When I first saw this video back in April I immediately fell in love with it. I probably watched it a few dozen times in those first few days, but when I went back to look for it later in the year in preparation for this Best Of list I discovered that the video had been taken down and its existence had almost completely been scrubbed from the internet. Concerned, I contacted video creator David Dean Burkhart to find out what exactly had happened:
“Yeah it got blocked worldwide like 4 days after I posted it (once it was announced that the leak of the album wasn’t legit). I plan on reposting it as soon as the song is released officially, but knowing [???], that could be awhile… sorry.”
Deeply bummed out and upset that I wasn’t going to be able to share one of my all-time favorite videos I asked Mr. Burkhart if I could have a copy of the video for my own viewing pleasure and then I asked if he would be OK with me posting it on my own for everyone else to watch, and surprisingly he said yes to both requests. Hence all the mystery and the fake name on the Vimeo account; I don’t want anyone at the label to figure out that I reposted the video, at least not until everyone’s gotten a fair chance to watch it.
David Dean Burkhart has always had an uncanny knack for finding the right source material to match the music for his videos, and this video is a perfect example of how great an editor he is. I’m not sure where he found this Bollywood video but it couldn’t be a better fit for this song if it was new footage shot specifically for this video. The quick edits and snap zooms perfectly match the frantic energy of the song, while the dancing choreography fits together so well with the music that you could be forgiven for thinking that the chiming sounds of the finger cymbals and bells were actually coming from the jangly metal pieces of her outfit.
Here’s just a few of my favorite moments from the video: I love how the quick insert shots of the unimpressed woman sitting at the table match up perfectly at 0:37 and 0:39 with the music stopping for the “uhn” / “special” parts of the song. At 1:24 she seems to be saying “yeah” with her whole body in perfect time with the song. And the quick cutting of the static color-filtered headshots from 2:13-2:23 seem to perfectly encapsulate the spaced-out break in the song. Throughout the whole video it almost seems as if the music itself is propelling her hips via some unseen guiding hand. The whole video is perfect, just perfect.
If you still can’t figure out who made this song (especially after the first 10 seconds of the video *hint* *hint*) or you would like to learn a little more about the leak that caused this video to get taken down, then go ahead and click the ??? tag at the bottom of the page to see my original blog post about this video.
Before we begin today’s top ten countdown I’d like to take a moment to give a proper shout out to Antonio Harper of Braider for sharing a link to the Music Matters Mixtape on his Facebook page (Braider’s “H1h” appears on that mixtape). The blog got a lot of extra traffic today because of his mention and I just wanted to take a second to say that I appreciated the extra attention. If you’re keeping score at home that’s a Braider track on each of the last three mixtapes. Not only did I put “H1h” on the Music Matters Mixtape but I also put “Dust” on the Runner-Ups Mixtape and “Milk” on The Can You Take The Heat??? Mixtape. Plus I wrote up Braider’s Nitetech EP here (and I almost never review music without a video). If you like their music (and you should) make sure to pick up the rest of the Nitetech EP (if you haven’t already) on their Bandcamp page.
BTW, if Mediafire’s statistics are to be trusted (and I’m not entirely sure they are) a lot of you only downloaded Part 1 of the Music Matters Mixtape. That’s only half the music! I know that Part 1 is where Braider’s “H1h” appears, but there’s a whole lot of other great stuff on Part 2 as well. Maximize your musical happiness and download Part 2 right now!
10. Major Lazer – Bubble Butt (feat. Bruno Mars, 2 Chainz, Tyga & Mystic)
“Bubble Butt” is definitely one of the most, uh, memorable videos of the year. There seems to be an unspoken bond shared between anyone who’s seen the video. All you need to do is walk up to someone and say, “Have you seen ‘Bubble Butt’?” and if they nod their head and give you the look (you’ll know the look), you don’t have to say another word to them because you already know everything they’re ever going to say about the matter without ever saying another word. If you somehow haven’t seen this video yet, here’s the gist of what you are about to see: A giant black Amazon with a massive booty finds some skinny ass hoes listening to shit dancehall music, sticks some hoses up their flat asses and makes them bootylicious with some o’ dem glorious bubble butts. In a year where Miley Cyrus horrified a nation by bring “twerking” into the national lexicon, Major Lazer made sure to let us all know who brought it to America in the first place and then showed us what twerking’s like when done right. This is a weird ass video, but man, is it fun.
9. Baddy Paris and Rufus Starlight – We Are Brothers (A Best Man Song)
How does a wedding present made by two brothers mourning the loss of their third sibling to the bonds of holy matrimony become one of the best music videos of the year? By being flippin’ awesome, that’s how. “We Are Brothers” features a host of amazing 80’s clichés, from the Miami Vice jackets and the metallic headbands to the genius retro synth work and epic German-accented vocals. No matter how many times I watch this video it never gets old and I bust a gut every time they jump out and scream into their father’s ears (see above). This video really is the best present you could give anyone.
8. HAIM – The Wire
2013 will definitely be known as the year HAIM blew up. Just about everybody wanted a piece of them. They were opening for huge acts like Phoenix, Vampire Weekend, Mumford & Sons, Florence + the Machine, and the xx and celebrities were crawling out of the woodwork to hang out with them. Basically everything nice you ever could have wished happen to them after you saw their amazing “Forever” video (#7 on last year’s Best Of list) happened to them. They released hit single after hit single this year, all leading up to their fantastic debut album, Days Are Gone. And by far the best song and video of the bunch was “The Wire”. “The Wire” sounds like T.Rex, Fleetwood Mac and The Runaways mixed up in a blender and produced one of the catchiest singles ever. It’s nearly impossible not to love the song after hearing the “Well I know, I know, I know, I know / that you’re gonna be OK anyway” part. And the video has lots of fun playing with gender stereotypes by having the tough girls break up with the sensitive guys (lead by Lonely Island member, Jorma Taccone) who then sob uncontrollably for basically the entire rest of the video. “The Wire” really is a hit, in every sense of the word.
7. Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines (feat. T.I. & Pharrell Williams)
“Blurred Lines” was probably the most controversial video of the year. People complained that the “I know you want it” line was a little too rape-y (which, out of context, I can kinda agree with) and things weren’t helped out much by Miley Cyrus doing unspeakable things with his foam finger during their performance together on the VMAs. Feminists called out the fact that all the models are naked in the video while all the guys stayed fully dressed. Then Marvin Gaye sued over its similarities to “Got To Give It Up”, which is frankly a little ridiculous. There are some similarities, sure, but copyright infringement? Bitch, please. That’s like the first guy who ever used a C-chord on a guitar in a rock song suing, well, everybody who’s ever written a rock song. The fact that this song was played, like, A BILLION TIMES this summer, which caused everyone to then have an opinion about it, helped drag its reputation through the mud even more. In the future when people argue over what the song of the summer of 2013 was, this or Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” (also produced by Pharrell Williams, mind you), I feel like “Blurred Lines” is going to get a raw deal because of its bad reputation, which is kind of unfair because it really is an amazing song/video.
In reply to the claims of the song’s sexist overtones, most intelligent bloggers have already pointed out that the song is actually about female sexual freedom and expression. The “good girl” talked about in the song is dating a guy who won’t let her sexually express herself freely, and Robin Thicke is just letting her know that if she wants to get her freak on, he’s game. The song says to women that it’s OK if they want to get a little freaky from time to time, that it doesn’t make them a slut for going outside of what society deems a “good girl” should be. Being upset at this song is kind of reverse slut-shaming. And love it or loath it, the nudity in the video plays into this idea of female sexual freedom. I mean the girls in the video seem to be having even more fun than the guys. What’s wrong about that? Seems pretty win-win to me. The sad reality is that a lot of the video parodies that switched the gender roles to show how horrible this video is happened to do more harm to gender roles and stereotypes than this video ever did.
But enough about what everyone else hated about the video. Let’s talk about what I think makes it great. The song is catchy as all hell and super fun, definitely an earworm. And the video has a simple elegance to it that is quite smart. It’s titillating while being fun and innocent at the same time. The #THICKE hashtag, which a lot of people seemed to hate, I think is pure genius. Robin Thicke jumped onto something there in the zeitgeist way before anyone else thought to do it. It was in-your-face superliminal advertising in the YouTube/Twitter age, basically making the video go viral before it actually went viral. That’s why I don’t think the nudity in the video is just a throwaway sexist thing to do. They knew exactly what they were doing here. And Emily Ratajkowski is a true breakout star here. Not only is she drop dead gorgeous, but she totally sells the whole concept of the video. Without her I might not be so quick to defend it.
This is the NSFW nudity-filled version of the video. If you want to check the video out sans nudity you can find it here.
6. Lily Allen – Hard Out Here
Now you can pretty much forget everything I just said in the last post, because Lily Allen had her own response to “Blurred Lines”, Miley Cyrus, twerking, Britney Spears’ “Work Bitch” and any other number of other sexist female clichés that exist in today’s pop culture, and she put all of that collective energy into one hell of a music video. (One could argue that I placed “Blurred Lines” very strategically on this list.) It’s weird that I feel I have to defend loving a music video like “Blurred Lines” (which is objectively a pretty fantastic video) but you realize why that’s even necessary after you watch “Hard Out Here”. The beginning of the video is a direct criticism of all of the people who shamed her in the tabloids by saying she let herself go (after having two children), a concern I’m sure a lot of women can share with her. Lily then uses her dry sarcastic wit to hilariously reveal the dual-standards that plagues women in the industry today. A common recurring gag in the video is that it’s the middle-aged male studio executive who is showing all the girls how to be seductive, how to twerk, etc. The idea being that it isn’t women who are making up all of these romantic ideals for themselves, but men forcing these ideas on them. The music of the song amps up the layers of meaning to this by exploiting the pop song format while making fun of it at the same time. All and all, it’s a superb showing, and I’m glad Lily didn’t let the haters keep her down.
Phew. I didn’t realize how much work writing up 30 videos was going to be. At work I was complaining to a coworker about how much work I was putting into this project and he just laughed at me because I said pretty much exactly the same thing last year around this time when I decided to expand that year’s project from 10 to 20 videos. If I for some reason lapse into another moment of madness next year and decide to do 40 videos, please, someone slap me. But in the meantime, you better enjoy the fruits of this year’s insanity.
15. Classixx – All You’re Waiting For (feat. Nancy Whang)
This stylish, high-gloss video is perfect for a song whose lyrics essentially glorify douchy, self-obsessed excess. Tell me the chorus “I’m all you’re waiting for” isn’t a tad bit dickish? But that’s OK, because we now live in an age of rich, self-obsessed asshats we want to emulate as we watch their “real” housewives act like idiots in 20 different frickin’ cities, much like how we enjoy watching Nancy Whang rock out in spoiled excess on her yacht in this classic (pun intended) video for Classixx’s fantastic song “All You’re Waiting For”. This video is so fun and so exceedingly well made that you’re going to quickly forget about all the nasty things I just wrote and immediately focus on everything else that’s amazing about it.
How perfect is the video? Well how about the moment when Nancy downs an entire martini from 1:03 to 1:17 as the music slowly builds and the melody rises up the scale to match the liquor pouring down her throat? How about immediately after that from 1:18 to 1:31 when the rocking of the boat perfectly matches the sing-song nature of the chorus? How great is that? Plus, puppies! What’s not to love?
14. DJ Oguretz – Let The Music Fuck You
Sometimes the mark of a great video is when you take a chance on something for which you had little to no expectations to only then have your mind completely blown by it. DJ Oguretz has an immediately likable face, being a big Russian lug of an everyman with a fetish for Vanilla Ice’s fade haircut from the “Ice Ice Baby” days. The video starts off pretty innocuously as Oguretz goes about his morning ritual in a low-tech Russian farm house, getting ready for his big night DJing at a local community center while the song’s pretty standard acid house beat plays in the background. There’s a nice innocent folksy charm to the whole thing. Then at the 2 minute mark the beat drops out, the vocals kick in, and something magical happens. Never mind for a moment the extreme outrageousness of the chorus, which for the record is just flat out genius. When the music comes back in and joins those amazing vocals the song suddenly transcends just about everything that’s going on in your life and takes me back to the first time I ever heard an epic dance track that left me stunned on the dancefloor. “Let The Music Fuck You” is a musical epiphany, an instant classic that slyly helps you express everything there is that’s great about music.
13. Whinnie Williams – Break Hearts In Your Sleep
“Break Hearts In Your Sleep” plays like a highly stylized, deeply charming, 60’s influenced Wes Anderson homage. It’s a short film in which Whinnie and her toy poodle Brian dream of going to France but are flat broke so they go on an Antiques Roadshow-type program to see if a family heirloom is actually worth anything, only to discover that it is worthless (…or is it?). The actual song only starts to play after a minute into the video when a receptionist puts her record on as hold music, and the song definitely has that vintage warm vinyl feeling to it of a classic Wall of Sound 60’s girl group composition. It’s pure retro power pop in the best sense possible and points to the fact that Whinnie Williams is poised to have a pretty big year in 2014.
12. Toro y Moi – Rose Quartz
Let me start this off by saying that Toro y Moi’s album Anything In Return is easily one of the best albums of 2013. If you haven’t picked it up yet, please do so, because it’s front-to-back, wall-to-wall awesomesauce. They put out lots of great videos from Anything In Return this year, but “Rose Quartz” is by far the most interesting to watch. It was created by rotoscoping their live performances with huge gobs of paint, mirroring how each of the sounds in the song seem to be layered on top of each other just like the thick layers of paint in the video. The trippy, spaced out, psychedelic nature of the song lends itself really well to the beautiful experimental nature of the video.
11. Lapalux – Without You (feat. Kerry Leatham)
Not everyone is going to get into this–frankly–bizarre music video for Lapalux’s “Without You”, but that’s OK because I love it. Before I dig into this video though, a quick word about how I watch all the videos I go through before picking and choosing what will eventually make its way onto the blog. I rarely, if ever, watch a video all the way through the first time I click play. Usually what happens is I either skip forward after a few seconds to try and get to the good part (or find a good part), or I hit play and then jump to another tab in my browser to do something else as I listen to the song. Only when and if the song grabs my attention (usually after repeat listenings) do I fully watch the video all the way through start to finish to prepare myself to write about it.
The reason I’m telling you all of this is because the exception to the rule happened the moment I hit play on Lapalux’s “Without You”. Despite my ADD infected brain begging and pleading with me to move onto something else I was immediately sucked in to this video and nothing could pull me away. The slow and seductive beat reminds me immediately of FKA Twigs (who just missed out on a spot on this year’s list because of this video). The song is so mysterious and seductive, but there’s also pain and heartbreak in there too. The story follows a woman who falls deeply in love with a gimp (one might say she’s sexually fascinated with him) only to break up with him because his gimpiness doesn’t fit in with the societal conventions of her friends and family. The gimp then falls onto hard times without her while she slowly comes to the realization that she wants him back, that she needs him, but it’s sadly too little, too late.
The more I write about it, the more I wish I’d put “Without You” a little higher up on this list. It’s just so damn good. And just in case you haven’t already figured it out yet and the fact that this is a love story involving a gimp hadn’t already clued you in, this video is pretty NSFW, so view appropriately.
Through pure coincidence I realized that I grouped four sports themed videos together for this part of the list. I tried looking for a fifth to complete the theme, but no dice. Sorry.
20. Alex Metric & Jacques Lu Cont – Safe With You (feat. Malin)
Pairs figure skating ends up being a totally apt metaphor for a song with lyrics like these:
And I’ll do anything / you know that / I’ll break my back for you
And you’ll do anything / I know you’ll do, to / keep me safe with you
Malin’s gorgeously fragile vocals eloquently express the trust and dedication that two figure skaters must have with each other to keep from killing each other on the ice. The repeated images of the skaters on top of each other not only looks amazing, but it also shows all the work they’ll put into a routine while also playing with the repetition of the melody. Whenever someone who doesn’t like electronic music asks me why I like music that’s often so repetitive I like to think of something akin to this video. The beauty is often in the repetition itself and the slight changes that occur with the layering of sounds. When I listen to something like this the notes become images much like the skaters stacked one on top of the other in this video.
19. Autoerotique – Asphyxiation
Autoerotique’s “Asphyxiation” (Get it? Of course you do) is the spiritual successor to the movie Dodgeball in the best way possible. Sure, this video is sexist as hell, but at least it’s totally self-aware about its blatant sexism and everyone who participated in it seems to be having a fantastic time playing with those conventions. Sure, the women are barely dressed, at times almost cartoonishly impossibly so, but then again the guys are just as sexualized as the girls, and more than once the girls use sex to score a few points to win the big game. The song’s energetic beat will pump you up and when the music drops out and then cuts back in with a “Fuck you!”, it’s at that point that you know you shouldn’t be taking the video too seriously. It’s all a whole lot of cheeky fun, superbly put together.
18. Froggy Fresh – Dunked On
It’s been a big year for Froggy Fresh. Back in December of 2012 he officially changed his name from Krispy Kreme to Froggy Fresh and released a new album. Boring ol’ logic (and Wikipedia) might suggest that the name change was because the Krispy Kreme doughnut company threatened him with legal action if he didn’t change his name, but I’d like to think that he did it as penance to Money Maker Mike after mistakenly calling Daniel Tosh his best friend on Tosh.0. That shit just won’t stand. After the name change to Froggy Fresh he went on a roll, releasing the aforementioned album as well as a string of new videos, each one being even better than the last.
For me the real highlight of the lot is by far “Dunked On”. Not only does “Dunked On” have the sickest beat of anything that he’s done so far, but it has to have one of the greatest choruses of all time. OF ALL TIME. I mean look at that picture above to see how excited Froggy is to explain to us all why it is that James is crying. (It’s worth noting that in the previous video James had just murdered Money Maker Mike’s mom, and obviously the best revenge is dunking on him and making him cry like a little bitch.) Sing it all with me: “Why’s James crying? ‘CAUSE HE JUST GOT DUNKED ON!” That’s right, Captain Poopy Shoes. You got served.
17. Hourglass Sea – Dream Girl
After falling asleep to late night sex hotline commercials, a teenage boy has a dream about his Dream Girl who appears to him in full Kelly LeBrock Weird Science glory, although when his physical insecurities as well as issues with his parents start to creep into the dream it separates him from fulfilling his sexual fantasy and puts him on a quest to man up and save her. The synth and guitar licks help sex up the 80’s vibes, while the chopped up vocals and rhythm help add to the dreamlike atmosphere. It’s a massive crime that this video only has 700 views right now.
This video’s nerd dream atmosphere actually reminds me quite a bit of #5 on my Top 10 of 2011 list, Destroyer’s “Kaputt”. Feel free to compare and contrast (and feel free to start over-analyzing why I love these videos so much).
16. SCRNS – TTYN
For quite a while I debated on whether “TTYN” or Little Jinder’s “Whatever 4ever” should fill this slot on this list. While they both fit the extremely-catchy-pop-song-set-at-a-party vibe I was looking for, and while I absolutely love, love, love “Whatever 4ever” and its insanely catchy and singable chorus, its video unfortunately fell a little flat and felt too one note for me to justify its appearance on this list. “TTYN” on the other hand brings with it a whole slew of extra layers and is so much more than just a catchy chorus (although it definitely has that too). Its melody feels fresh and new and the lyrics work on multiple satirical levels, playing off the concept of ditching your friends to grow up and join the rat race with the goal of being successful and wealthy, while slyly suggesting that the alternative is way more fun.
Before we dive into videos 21-25 I’d just like to take a moment of silence for all their fallen music video brethren that for one reason or another didn’t make it to the final cut. Specifically I’d like to give a shout out to MØ’s “Pilgrim” and Pogo’s “Wizard of Meh”, two fantastic videos I posted this year that unfortunately got disqualified for technically being from 2012, not 2013. Chins up, you guys. You’re gone off of this list, but not forgotten.
25. Lulu James – Sweetest Thing
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone that could argue that “Sweetest Thing” isn’t one of the best songs of the year, what with its catchy/infectious chorus, rubber-band bouncy beats and overall warm romantic vibes. You just like this song the instant you hear it and your love for it grows the more that you (inevitably) play it over and over. Lulu James sells this song 110% and the video does a great job of keeping its focus on Lulu and her amazing vocals, using a simple laser light display projected on her body to highlight the complex, yet surprisingly simple things going on with the melody. “Sweetest Thing” is definitely one of the most finely crafted pop ballads of the year and it’s worth at least one (or twenty) more listens before the New Year is upon us.
24. Du Tonc – Rise
Du Tonc’s “Rise” has a sort of magical, witching hour quality to it that’s totally embodied by this video. The subject matter in the video so perfectly matches the song that you would be forgiven for thinking that it was shot specifically for the song and not composed entirely of footage from 80’s movies, which it is. And what amazing choice of footage it is. Night cinematography never looked better than it did in the late 70’s/early 80’s. The wolf howls and the horror movie oOoOo’s of the chorus match up perfectly with William Peterson looking over his shoulder or the woman who changes into a creature of the night at the end, while the dancier aspects of the track match up with the surreal dance sequences in the heart of a mythical Las Vegas. You have to marvel at this video and how seamlessly it’s put together. It’s so deceptively simple that it’s not until after repeated viewings that you really appreciate the craftsmanship that was required to put it all together.
23. King Krule – Border Line
“Border Line” has the simple beat and classic melody that already sounds like a throwback to something that would have appeared in an old school musical and David Dean Burkhart instinctively picked up on that to make this gem of a video. The lolloping rhythm of the beautiful acoustic guitar seems to skip and jump just like the feet of these outstanding dancers and their performances only magnify the simple elegance of King Krule’s song. In a year that was filled with so many great videos from David Dean Burkhart, this was a real standout.
22. Blood Orange – Chamakay
The production on “Chamakay” puts my jaw on the floor every time. From the delicate plinking of the toy piano to the gentle synth washes, to the intricate bass lines and sensual sounds of the saxophone, every note sounds like it’s being played live right there in your living room. There’s nothing in this song’s production that feels half-assed or slapped together. Everything about it feels personal and well-loved, and that carries over into the incredible vocals. Both Dev Hynes of Blood Orange and guest vocalist Caroline Polachek of Chairlift have put out some of the best work of their already astounding careers here. The video is equally intimate, shot when Dev Hynes went to Georgetown, Guyana for the first time with his mother, who was born there, to visit with some of his family, including his 92 year old grandfather, whom he’d never met before. The resulting moments captured on film feel very real and organic as he interacts with locals and dances in authentic settings, and a special shout out goes to those moments where he sings back and forth the chorus with his mother. It’s really quite the song and video and it immediately became one of my favorite songs of 2013 the moment I heard it.
21. Summer Camp – Fresh
Lyric videos were another hot trend in 2013, specifically lyric videos that were actually worth watching in their own right. Traditional lyric videos of the past were glorified karaoke machines with even worse production values, if you can imagine that. In the early days of YouTube basically anyone could slap the least photogenic fonts they could find over a blank ugly background or worse, a picture that had nothing to do with the artist, and blamo, there you had a lyric video that you would always curse being tricking into clicking on because what you were really looking for was the official music video. Just recently artists have started to embrace the lyric video, most notably Best Coast in their lyric video for “This Lonely Morning” which made a lot of waves in the blogosphere by basically being a normal music video featuring the band and everything that just also happened to highlight the lyrics of the song as its primary focus.
The reason I love this lyric video for Summer Camp’s “Fresh” so much is because of how perfectly it embodies the atmosphere and spirit of the song, so much better than the so-so official video that they later put out for it. The dorky dancing and retro animation perfectly trump up the swelling strings loop and nostalgic lyrics about remembering (and trying to forget) a first love. Suddenly slapping the lyrics over top of some footage seemed cool and trendy instead of lazy and played out. As a first impression of Summer Camp’s new album, this was quite the doozy.
It’s time yet again for one of my very favorite parts of C’est Non Un Blog, the now traditional year end Best Of music video countdown. When I first started this in 2011 it was a pretty simple Top 10 list, but in 2012 there was just so much good music floating around out there that I had to get more ambitious and make it into a Top 20 list. Well, in 2012 I had to trim my short list of 50 videos down to 20, but this year my short list topped out at closer to 80 music videos. Trying to narrow that list down to 20 was becoming a bit of a Sophie’s Choice conundrum, so I figured fuck it, let’s add ten more to the tally like we did last year. Screw it. It’s the 10th Anniversary of C’est Non Un Blog. Why not go all out?
Because we’re dealing with 10 more videos than we did last year I figured why not add on an extra day to the countdown as well? So here we go, day one of six, counting down my Top 30 Music Videos of 2013 every day all the way to the New Year. Enjoy!
30. SZA – Ice Moon
The next time you find yourself strolling through the woods in the summertime try playing “Ice Moon” through some headphones as you walk between the warm beams of light cutting through the forest canopy above you and then try and tell me that your life isn’t 100x better in that moment. I dare you, because I know it can’t be done. You can’t listen to this magical Indian-influenced song without immediately feeling better about life; your life, the life around you, any and all life everywhere and anywhere. That makes it the perfect song to start off this countdown and get you in the mood for some more great music.
29. Tame Impala – Mind Mischief
If SZA’s “Ice Moon” wasn’t mind-altering enough for you then you might enjoy the cosmic stylings of Tame Impala, an Australian band that excels at creating psychedelic vibes. “Mind Mischief” may be the trippiest video of the year. A boy in boarding school meets up with his hot teacher in her car for a little after school sexual education, but before that can happen they smoke a little reefer, which results in him having quite the mind-expanding NSFW experience. By the time they finish you can tell he has no idea what the hell just happened on his trip, but right there at the end of the video that little smile in the corner of his mouth tells us that it was totally worth every minute.
28. Fryars – Cool Like Me
Religious-themed videos were hot in 2013, from the gospel preacher in Disclosure’s “When A Fire Starts To Burn” to Alexander Skarsgård’s cult leader in Cut Copy’s “Free Your Mind” to the conversion addict in Dizzee Rascal’s hilarious “Bassline Junkie” video. This year’s biggest religious experience came from Fryar’s “Cool Like Me” though. Two white-bread Mormon-esque missionaries travel into a black inner city neighborhood to preach the end of days and extol the virtues of being cool. They’re largely ignored and laughed at by the locals at first, but when they put everything they have into their admittedly dorky dancing they start to gain some respect by showing that being cool isn’t a state of being, it’s a state of mind, and that’s a positive message we can all take to the bank.
27. Annie – Back Together
Nostalgia was another big trend in 2013, specifically the look and sound of the 1990’s. One need only look at Charli XCX’s Spice Girl, Grrl power fashion sense and the current flood of 90’s R&B inspired acts that recently exploded on the scene to see that. Annie’s “Back Together” video is a rather adorable tongue-in-cheek throwback to the music video countdown shows of yesteryear, complete with primitive looking computer graphics, a fake countdown preceding the video including hidden Easter eggs for Annie fans, and VH1-style pop-up video bubble that hilariously takes up the vast majority of the screen, obscuring the video. After too long a hiatus 2013 was the year that Annie came back in a big way with her excellent A&R EP and her amazing collaboration on Ralph Myerz’s “Take A Look At The World”.
26. Delorean – Destitute Time
Delorean was another artist we hadn’t seen in a while and I didn’t realize how much I missed them until they started putting out new music again. Their “Destitute Time” video is easily the best of the bunch they released this year, really showcasing their bright New Wave sound with a video that deals with a relationship in a fun and interesting way, mixing realism with visual metaphor to show off the ups and downs of a dating couple.
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