The 5 Best Videos Of The Week
Someone dropped a masterpiece this week. The race for best music video of 2017 may already be over, like that time when Animal Collective dropped Merriweather Post Pavilion at the top of 2009 and we already knew that every last publication would put it at the top of the year-end lists. There were many good videos this week. (Shout out to FKA twigs’ Nike commercial, which would be high up on this list if it weren’t a Nike commercial.) But there was only one all-time great work, and we must celebrate it. This week’s picks are below.
5. Tinashe – “Company” (Dir. Jack Begert)
We’ve seen a lot of this whole single-unbroken-camera-shot video lately. But usually, videos like that tell loopy stories or show of filmmaking technique. They don’t often get applied to really great, commanding, badass dance routines, but they probably should. That’s what happens here, and it’s great.
4. Cloud Nothings – “Internal World” (Dir. Jonny Look)
I like how this one twists the fake-instructional-video format up so that it sketches out a complete fictional world and tells a fun and unsettling story. This one overachieves.
3. Bishop Briggs – “Wild Horses” (Dir. Ramon Ayala)
The whole story here appears to be “world’s sketchiest house party does magic, pets horses, sees a UFO.” I wish they’d invite me next time.
2. Cherry Glazerr – “Nuclear Bomb” (NSFW-ish) (Dir. White Sitar)
This one takes a small but fun idea — girl makes out with guitar — and it does just about every ridiculous thing that you can possibly do with it. I am deeply impressed at how far they took it.
1. Migos – “T-Shirt” (Dir. Daps & Quavo)
Takeoff wearing a whole entire bear and carrying a spear? The grizzled prospector living in what appears to be a geodesic dome? The fur-covered money backpack? Quavo shooting a bow and arrow? The women, all of whom appear to come from ’70s Swedish exploitation movies, wearing low-cut dresses in the snowy mountains and not looking even remotely cold? The snowmobiles? The Jackie O sunglasses? Quavo exhaling smoke through diamond fronts in slow motion? The Pyrex on the campfire? The wolf? The marshmallows? The implied ski-lodge orgy? I cry every time. It’s so beautiful. All the animals who gave their lives for this video died for a noble cause.