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If you could see sound (ya know, without the help of psychedelic drugs) I have no doubt that this is what you would see when listening to Daft Punk’s Around the World. Michel Gondry has made a lot of genius music videos over the years, but none come as close to perfection as this one.

Daft Punk – Around the World from you_want_elvis on Vimeo.

I love how he took each component of the song and assigned a “character” to play it. The beat is played by some odd-looking break-dancers and they seem to be chasing the synchronized swimmers, who appropriately represent the dainty sound that seems to be following (and then being chased by) the beat in each measure. Then there are the skeleton men, symbolizing the bouncy bassline, which only makes too much sense if you’ve ever seen an old movie with a person in a skeleton costume dancing. Then there is the robotic repetition of Around the World, represented by spacemen appropriately doing the robot.

Their dancing changes to fit the song and even the set make sense, as they all dance around a circle stage. The camera always seems to be the right place holding the right focus on whatever part of the song is most prominent at that moment. Top to bottom, this is a genius video.

But is it the greatest video of all time? I think so, but if you disagree let me know what the real greatest video is in the comments.

BONUS VIDEO!

Same song. Different video. Almost as good as the other one.