The best music videos of 2009

Franz Ferdinand - No you Girls

This is my video of the year. There is so much going on in this video from Alex Kapranos's odd coloured shoes to the different video perspectives from the dancers.

The best bit though is the strange contratont the lead signer has with the androgynous Valkyrie. Superbly shot and timed perfectly to the music, well done Nima Nourizadeh.

See the more detailed write up on http://www.promonews.tv/ and see more of his excellent work here

Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications

Any video with Jarvis dancing goes straight in to the top ten.

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best, I can just imagine the pitch now "We'll just get him to dance about and we'll do some stuff to him."

Royksopp - Happy Up Here

Old skol gaming comes to life in this cute video from Reuben Sutherland

The Hickey Underworld - Blonde Fire

Joe Vanhoutteghem has made the creepiest video since Tool's Prison sex.

Warning to to be watched late at night alone.

The Maccabees - Can You Give it by James Caddick

This video is a loving tribute to the those brave souls who take part one of the UK's genuinely mental and dangerous traditions, Cheese Rolling. Cheese Rollers of Britain I salute you.

Depeche mode - Wrong

This video has gained alot of praise at various awards and rightly so. A proper big budget narrative driven video a rare beast these days.

Luxuriously shot a perfectly paced to amp up the suspense.

Cold War Kids - I've seen enough

There is no embedding option for this video because the extreme cleverness behind it, http://www.coldwarkids.com/iveseenenough

Ground breaking is a word bandied about a lot, but this video really is. The complexity of filming the multiple version would have been hard enough, getting the syncing and streaming together to make it a creative interactive experience is a real technical feat. The coolest thing on the net I have seen for awhile…

Block Party - Signs

BLOC PARTY - "Signs" Armand Van Helden Remix
by Cooperative-Music

2009 must have been the year of the disturbing music video and here is another of them. The cable coming out of someone's belly button made my legs go all funny. Hiro Murai, great video but you need to seek medical help.

Also should note not 100% work safe.

Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Heads will roll

The second Yeah Yeah Yeah's video to involve entrails has a lovely nod to recently departed king of pop and then it all goes horribly wrong.

Death Cab for Cutie - Grapevine Fires

Directed by Walter Robot this video is both tragic and touching, superbly echoes the sentiments of the song. A great example of what can be done with a little bit of emotion and animation. Love it!

Notable mentions

Well that is my top 10 best videos of 2009. Obviously this is just my opinion take it for what its worth.

There are a couple of notable mentions, Jonathan Glazer's video for The Dead Weather just misses of a top ten place. I love Glazer's work and this video is very cool and I really liked the idea and the cinematography.

The Dead Weather - Treat me like your mother

Then There was Shynola's video for Coldplay. I love just about everything they touch and I particularly like the flying sequence in this vid, but I just don't like Coldplay so sorry lads.

Coldplay - Strawberry Swing

If you want to see some more great videos from this year check these peeps 'Best of' lists;

• Spin Magazine's 20 Best Videos of 2009


• Culture Bully's Top Music Videos of 2009


• Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good's excellent list of Video's for 2009

Well Happy new year everyone and I will leave you with the video for Simian Mobile Disco's Cruel intentions, its re-editited footage from an upcoming short film Study After Cruel Intentions…

Brand new and you're Retro

A very quick post as its been ages...

Architecture in Helsinki - Do the wirlwind (the original video I think)

Arcade style retro graphics reminds me very much of Double Dragon game from 'bout a thousand years ago.

Gossip - Standing in the way of control
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opWBRRCTDXg
(sorry no embedding apparently)

MGMT - Time to Pretend
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnXRfhIDLtA
(sorry no embedding apparently)

Have a watch of how they have made the bonkers retro graphics in Time to pretend


Tilly and the wall - Beat Control

(on Google video, hmmm)

I leave you with this very nicely put together *brat pack mashup* fan video for Phoenix - Liztomania.

Great editing work and very 80's retro.

Got to get out of this black and white town

I went to see the Doves the other week, it inspired to me to pop up a quick post about the video for Black and White Town.

The video was done by indie film maker Lynne Ramsey, who did Morvern Callar, which I also watched recently. A film you really need to be in the mood to watch, bit depressing and long winded (not to say its not good, but pick a time and place), fab sound track though.

The video caused a bit of controversy as the record company decided to re-edit it before releasing it. I saw Lynne Ramsey do a talk about the video once and she explained why, the reason didn't seem all that clear to me but I think it was mainly to do with the violence (which is quite mild to be honest). At any rate she and the band where none too impressed.

I managed to find both versons so you can see for yourself, here's the directors cut:


And here's the released cut:


The video itself though really shows of Lynne's Ramsey's talent for ciminatography and much like her film making there are lots of really nice directoral touches sequences, like the variation in film speeds. She doesn't seem to have done much lately which is a shame, another music video would be nice while we wait for the next film (come on Lynne pull your finger out!).

I also thought I would post the Doves video for the new single, Kingdom of Rust:

Directed by China Moo-Young, the Doves have clearly found a visual style that they like working with, a sort of realist but majestic cinimatography and enigmatic narative themes. I really just like the blue Ford Grenarda in it.

Sorry for such a short post, I am working on a longer one about Hype Williams, but its a bit of a bugger to find the videos. Anyway thanks for reading and as always thanks to youtube and its users for posting.

Finally here is Sam Morton in Morvern Caller:

Look its Terence Stamp!

Since last post when we had Natalie Portman show up in Darvendra Banhart, Carmensita video. I got thinking about videos with other actors in them, so here's a few. Its also an excuss to show one of my favourite vids: At the bottom of everything.

Look its Trence Stamp!
At the bottom of everything by Bright Eyes


Look its Noel Fielding!
Mint Royal - Blue Song


Look its Simon Pegg and that David Williams Chap, oh and Lauren Lavern, Sally Davis and that girl from the office!
Charlotte Hatherley - Bastardo


Look its Courtney Cox!
Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In The Dark
You will have to jump over to youtube this one sorry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk8VZgJkpeg

Look its Courtney Cox again!
Counting Crows Long - December


Look its Elijah Wood!
Cranberries - Ridiculous Thoughts


Look its Chevy Chase!
Paul Simon - Call me al


Look its Kate Moss (not actually an actress, but I love the 'Scream), oh and Irvine Welsh (also not an actor)!
Primal Scream - Kowalski


Look its Jamie Winstone!
Hercules and Love Affair - Blind


Look its Helena Christensen (who was described, recently by my brother, as looking like an old pigeon, oh and is also not an actress)!
Chris Isaac - wicked Game


Look its Christopher Walken! (he is an actor)
Fat Boy Slim - Weapon of Choice
Strangely embeding is disabled so pop a long to...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HPbicuTjBjo

Sadly that's all we have time for, but stay tunned, same time, same bat channel.


Thanks

In a Bollywood style

As promised more regular bite size posts. Some videos inspired by Bollywood iconography, Not a massive topic but there have been some really nice promos done recently drawing this inspiration most notable the first video.

Indie-folk singer Darvendra Banhart has done this fun video with Natalie Portman, low budget but lavish costume and set design bringing to life a Hindu parable in proper Bollywood style. Directed by Skinny (who I am struggling to find anything about but hope to see more of)

Darvendra Banhart, Carmensita. In a word "Lavish"


Take the time to read the slightly bonkers subtitles.


Colonel Blimp add a bit of Bolly style, fused with the current Neu-Rave 80's revival for M.I.A Trans-global Music.


Despite the Cuban flavour of this track by the Arctic monkeys and Rythyms Del Mundo project the video is simply re-edited footage from Hindi film, Gumnaam (I only know that from one of the comments, sadly I can't claim an encyclopedic knowledge of classic Hindi cinema).


This is from a few years ago and pretty crappy, Before they were reinvigorated themselves with "hey baby". No Doubt's terrible cover of a terrible song "Oi to the World" only thing worth while is the Indian setting for a chase and fight, all very random for what is a essentially a Christmas record (I think its supposed to be anti-establishment or some such).

Sorry no embed option so you'll have to follow this link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZjoJXAjXY8

Thanks again folks and the usual big up to youTube and it's users.

I will leave you with a true youTube great, words are fail me trying to describe this

Animation, Animation, Animation

I thought we would jump in straight into this massive genre with Mika's Lollipop.
Just a quick note, this video was made by a collective of French animators all with their own styles and then edited together to blend it in to a seamless whole.


Animated videos, probablly started with Beatles when they made Yellow submarine. Now I say probablly, because I don't really know and I am not sure you can count early avaunt-garde film makers expirements with visuals and sound as a music video promo. So for the sake of argument lets say commercial video promo started with the Beatles and move on.

For ease of discussion I have divided this blog in to three types of animation, (so not just a clever title) Stop frame, 2D and CGI. Now I realise a lot of 2D is done on computers but lets not get bogged down in semantics.

Stop frame animated video were massively popular in the 80's an like most things in the eighties with hindsight fairly ill advised. So here's a quick tour of some the best and worst...

Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite


Nina Simone - My Baby Just Cares for Me


Wax - Building a Bridge, brief warning this will hurt your eyes and may cause neausea.


The Firm - Star Trekking


Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer is great example of how good it can be.


The infullence of the videos can be seen in more modern examples like Adam and Jo's Sweet Johnny for Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

BTW that really is Richard Ashcroft in cameo-ing in that video. Also in another side note Adam Buxton has now taken over the music video show case (Antenna, now called BUG) at the BFI, if your in London check it out.

For regular readers (who am I kidding, reader) of this blog, may be wondering how I have got this far with out mentioning Michel Gondrey. Undoubtedly the master of this sort of thing.

So here he is talking about the process with the White Stripes for Fell in Love with a Girl.


Animated videos are cheap and effective way making music promo, but you do need patience. Anyway, here is Michel animating wool for Kiwi's Sterogram - Wakie Takie Man, rather than lego

Moving on to 2D or traditional animation

Daft Punk Released their own Yellow Submarine style full length video Interstella 5555, which was a visual reworking of their Album discover by Anime icon Leiji Matsumoto (of space battle ship Yamemoto fame). The vids for singles all featured squences from the film. Which to me look a bit like a piss poor episode of Robotec (maybe that's the idea). Anyway...

Daft Punk - Stronger, Harder, Faster.


Now I ain't the biggest Britney fan but the new album has some good stuff on it and this video is a much better example of how good a manga inspired video can be than Daft Punk. Watch Britney Spears go all Aeon Flux (sorry couldn't find an embededable one so fallow the link)
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC2vy18rkho

Blur - Good Song, Shynola and artist David Shrigley team up.


Wagon Christ - Shadows

I love that video, I love that the action is never really explained.


Computer Animation

Surely, the iconic promo for computer animation has to Dire Straits - Money for nothing.

So iconic has it been that it has been used in a thousand parodies. The next video is cheerful homage by rising star Nima Nourizadeh, who seems to be making a decent living out Hot Chip check out his myspace page. Chromeo- bonafide lovin'


CGI doesn't often get stuck in the animation bracket but it has every reason to in my opinion as all the same principles apply, except that you trying to make it look real.
Hammer and Tongs did a great job with the effects on this video esp on a tight-ish budget they are as good as any big blockbuster.
Chemical brothers - believe



Lyrics born and Quannum - I changed my Mind, This was another Shynola vid, I really like the use of 3D wire frames in this video. Apparently the urban legend around this video is that they ran out of rendering time so never got to finish the 3D skins, I think its all the better for it.


Well that is it for a brief history of animated videos. So thanks again for taking the time to read, and as always a very big thank you the YouTube and it users. This I think will be the last long post for awhile, I am going to try and keep then shorter and more regular for a bit.

And now for something completely different to end on, as I was in fact today nearly covered in bees...

Just what is she doing?

This month we will be looking at the contribution to Music Videos made by kooky iconic Icelander, Bjork or Bee-joor-ak as I used to think she was called at school. My dyslexia just about copes with English let alone a language that has funny things over its letters.

Not only has she been taking chances with her music over the years (some of it verging on damn near unlistenable) she has also been taking chances on video directors. She has worked with all the big guns (Michel Gondrey, Chris Cunningham, Spike Jonze, Stephane Sednaoui) often before they hit the big time and currently taking chances on first time directors (recently holding a competition to direct her video for new single Innocence).

We will start Bjork retrospective with All is Full of Love by Chris Cunningham. Bjork has quite a lot of influence in the making of her videos and apparently she specifically sort out Chris for all is full of love and in an interview with her she said she was looking for something white, clinical yet sexy at the same time... I'm not sure if this is erotic but what ever floats your boat:



I think this was Bjork's first solo single but I am far too lazy to look it up, it was certainly the first thing I ever saw of her. This was Michel Gondry's first big video outside France (or was it Lucas with the lid off???), Human Behaviour:



The first of about a thousand Bjork/Gondrey collaborations. On Michel's DVD he talks at length about collaborating with Bjork, if your interested.

More Michel with Hyperballad:



I used to hate this video with a passion when I was younger and I was going to put it in an example of "how not all Michel touches is gold and that even the best collaborations can go awry, but watching it again I can't think why I hated it so much. Ok, its not the greatest video in the world, but its got some nice ideas in there and some great effects, the glowing electricity pylons and the effective superimposition's... Maybe MTV just over played it. Why not comment, let me know is this video crap?

Great eerie dark video, involving sheep and amoeba, from Coronel Blimp, Nature is Ancient:



I totally forgot about this video and it is a truly excellent animated one for I Miss You by the guy who started Ren and Stimpy, John Kricfalusi:



Even more Michel, Army of Me:



Very distinctly Michel Gondry, the trade mark perspective size changes, the stretching body parts, over sized objects and people in animal suits, its all there. I would draw your attention to the narrative. Prospective terrorist goes to blow up a lover in a coma, on the way stops at the dentist to have a filling removed and uses it to restart her truck. An everyday story I think you will all agree.

Next is the first of two collaborations between Spike Jonze and Bjork, the first which I expect every man and his dog has seen as it was probably Bjork's most commercial hit and indeed Spike's most commercial video, big budget and heavy rotation on MTV (in the days before youtube and multiple music channels, when that sort of thing happened). Its Oh so Quite:



This is the second collaboration with Spike Jonze for Triumph of a Heart, this shows two artists a bit more in tune with their style of work, Spike has gone back to a slightly rougher video style of Praise You and Bjork is doing her own thing with hand clapping and acapella.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQB9d-MMIx0 (sorry rubbish, a link to this one, go watch and come back)

I know a lot of people who don't like both the video and the song so there is some debate about how successful this collaboration is. I saw it at Antenna with a room full of other music video junkies and it pretty much got their seal of approval judging by the laughs. Personally if it has a dancing cat, I am sold.

*In an bit of a side note, coming soon Spike is currently directing Where the Wild Things Are, which is pretty awesome really.

As mentioned previously the spectacular fan made video for Innocence by Annabella Faustin, who won the competition to make the first video for Volta.



This video highlights the serious issues facing the music video promo industry. If fans can produce videos of this quality for almost nothing why are you going to have huge budget and big time director, esp. when the record industry is in meltdown and record companies have no money for commissioning promos.

Well produced vid for Unravel:

Reminds me of that Audi A6 ad.

I think we will end on the rarely seen night version of Big Time Sensuality by Stephane Sednaoui. The power of the artist lead video, and a very game Bjork. I really don't know why this was never the original video (it has a is more aesthetic light contrast than the day time one). Probably an MTV thing:



So in conclusion, as inventive in her music video commissioning as she is with her music, love or loathe them she has made some amazing videos that have pushed boundaries, and played her part in making stars out of lesser know directors. Bjork we salute you.

Again, a big thank you to you all for taking the time to read and watch, very much appreciated. Another huge debt of gratitude to the boys and girls at YouTube, both the users and developers for the continued flouting of international copyright law and for making it so easy to find this stuff on the web, I thank you. As always, I will leave with something totally irrelevant. Who's the boom king! Flight of the Conchords and Abi the racist dragon: