The 5 Best Videos Of The Week
The most exciting music-on-video experience I had this week didn’t come from a music video. It came from something that someone shot on a cell phone. It’s from the first of the Bikini Kill reunion shows this weekend. It’s the moment you can hear the crowd buzzing and freaking out, when they hear the opening drum-slaps and guitar-fuzz of “Rebel Girl.” A close runner-up from that same video: The fists punching the air when Kathleen Hanna howls, “I got news for ya! She is!” Nothing else came close, honestly. This week’s picks are below.
5. Julia Shapiro – “A Couple Highs” (Dir. Claire Buss)
Taking your car to get washed? Going bowling by yourself? Feeding donuts to your dog? Man, that looks like a great day. Wendy And Lucy is a good movie, but I didn’t catch the homage. I was too busy being like, “Damn, that’s living.”
4. Bleached – “Hard To Kill” (Dir. Juliana & Nicky Giraffe)
Hard To Kill is maybe the fourth-best Steven Seagal movie, which means it rules. This video isn’t as good as that, but all the glam-noir stuff is fun anyway. (Top three Seagal movies, for the record: Out For Justice, Under Siege, Marked For Death.)
3. Taylor Swift – “ME!” (Feat. Brendon Urie) (Dir. Dave Meyers & Taylor Swift)
This is, admittedly, total candy-colored Disney World bullshit. But I like candy-colored Disney World bullshit. Have you been to Disney World anytime lately? Those people work so hard to keep you happy that it’s honestly amazing. I get the same vibe from this.
2. Louis Tomlinson – “Two Of Us” (Dir. ?)
This is only barely a music video. You can’t even hear the damn song. But it’s remarkably effective at forcing you to feel things, which is, of course, the entire point.
1. Stormzy – “Vossi Bop” (Dir. Henry Scholfield)
If something is influenced by both Beyoncé’s Coachella set and Children Of Men, then that thing is going to be great. That, right there, is a winning combination.