The 5 Best Videos Of The Week
Taylor Swift’s “…Ready For It?” is a pretty bad video, and it’s not even bad in the ways that you would expect a Taylor Swift video to be bad. It’s expensive and meaningless and even maybe slightly pretentious? But at least it’s not boring? I have no idea what’s happening with it, and I fear that one of our greatest pop stars may be disappearing up her own butt. At any rate, this week’s picks are below.
5. Baths – “Out” (Dir. Will Wiesenfeld)
This thing is so profoundly cheap and dumb and unserious, and it makes me wonder why more people can’t at least have fun with their videos, whether or not they have any budget whatsoever.
4. Charlie Puth – “How Long” (Dir. Emil Nava)
Lord help me, but I am utterly charmed by the sight of this dorkus malorkus white man’s overbiting through thin air like a drunk superhero at a wedding.
3. The War On Drugs – “Nothing To Find” (Dir. Ben Fee)
Prepare yourself to get emotionally invested in a video about the girl from It hanging out with a plant-man.
2. Camila Cabello – “Havana” (Feat. Young Thug) (Dir. Dave Meyers)
Someone needs to build an hour-long CW dramedy around Camila Cabello immediately.
1. Zola Jesus – “Siphon” (Dir. Zia Anger)
When I was at the Basilica Soundscape Festival last month, my friend Brandon Stosuy, who organizes the festival and who used to do my job at Stereogum, pointed out Zia Anger in the crowd and told me that Zola Jesus had made a video with her earlier that day. I think I might’ve actually said “oh, shit!” out loud. I knew that they’d come out with something amazing. And they did. This is a video of uncommon beauty and grace and intensity and emotional power.