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2013 Music Video Round-Up
Other | Friday 6th December 2013 | cregan
The ubiquity of the twerk stops here. Gentrified into the mainstream diaspora by the Oxford dictionary whose appropriation has hopefully nullified it and resigned it to the list of things your 12 year old sister used to be interested in. With that in mind it absolutely will not feature in this list of the best music videos of 2013 – though not for a lack of trying. Cheek shaped caveat in place, now’s the time to take account of the year before it disappears through the hour glass neck of 2014.
10) M.I.A. – Bring the Noize. Perfectly complimenting M.I.A.’s occasionally arbitrary rough housing – “I’m so tangy/people call me Matangi” thanks, rhyming dictionary – with an assault of colour, choreography and fabulously intricate hair the video continues M.I.A.’s unbroken streak of appropriating intense visuals and iconography to dubious if stunning ends. All part of “the conversation”, just depends who you’re talking to.
9) Professor Kliq – Wire and Flashing Lights. Really properly charming. It’s not the first stop-motion music video, it won’t be the last nor perhaps the best but it does show up the Arctic Monkey’s joyless Do I Wanna Know clip as the joyless, pedestrian effort which passes muster.
8) James Blake ft. Chance the Rapper – Life Round Here. Every bit as preciously studied and measured as the production on the track, this the establishing birdseye/Kubrick – see The Shining – sets the tone for a beautiful but detached meditation on violence. The repurposing of the drop-top from rap lineage from an item of status to a gentle country runner underlines the separation of style and substance between Blake and Chance whilst marrying the ideas well.
7) Killer Mike & El-P – 36 Inch Chain. Fun as it is to see the titular chains swinging, this stands out as a rare occasion in which to see the producers of arguably the best rap album of 2013 having fun. A rare excursion from po-faced posturing, the chase for a fluffy mascot sees Andrew WK getting his comeuppance for years of being Andrew WK, Tarantino ultraviolence and a healthy dose of humour.
6) David Bowie – The Next Day. If you can forgive the slight whiff of phase 2 Morrissey career revamp in the guitars, this track is far more entertaining than anyone had any right to anticipate it being. Though it’s Great and Important to see David firing on all cylinders his collaborators should be taking their bow, Visconti behind the desk and here Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard take what might have been a bizarre misadventure and wrangle it into a visceral, but Great, mess.
5) Boards of Canada – Reach For The Dead. There’s no reinventing the wheel going on here. The track is unmistakably Boards and the accompanying visual is every bit as grainy, abstract and complimentary as could be expected. By turns sumptuously shot scenes of arid planes visualise the dichotomy of unnerving drone and the melody underpinning the track.
4) James Franco and Seth Rogen – Bound 3. According to ‘Ye - and an appalled Zane Lowe – the only people who say no to his self-ordained genius are Versace. The only wrinkles in the Yeezy egocoaster then, would be Versace, South Park, Obama and now Franco & Rogen. Franco serves a pretty decent straight guy to Rogen’s straighter rendition of Kim’s sexless darling. Every bit as funny as fish sticks.
3) Pusha T – Numbers on the Board. A perfect counterpart to the track, mimicking the tight clip of the beat with the space of the production while Pusha captures the Q-Tip brand just-off glance to straight-to-camera glare to maximum effect. Cinematic and moody on a scale untouched by any other performance this year.
2) Danny Brown – ODB. Absolutely, unequivocally unhinged. Mesmerizing and ropey effects contort an already naturally mesmerizing and ropey Danny Brown into grimacing demon figures in the most intense, captivating performance video of the year. Danny’s aggressive new-psychedelic aesthetic develops and serves his increasingly discombobulating verses perfectly.
1) Bob Dylan – Like A Rolling Stone. This feels like cheating. A septuagenarian with a 45 year old song and a video that isn’t really a video as much an immersive satire on music videos. The novelty and channel-flicking instantly gratifying gimmickry should elicit a Luddite “Judas” from some dial-up corner of the internet, but that’s a quiet voice from a long time ago.
