I am writing this week’s column in the immediate aftermath of Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus’ frivolous, delightful, generally unnecessary “Old Town Road” video, and it got me thinking. “Old Town Road” has been the #1 song in America for six weeks, and it’s probably nowhere near the end of its run. It is already the most-streamed song of all time. And this whole time, the only music video it’s had has been a collection of clips from Red Dead Redemption 2. So if the entire institution of the music video can be entirely incidental to a pop song’s success, are music videos necessary? Will people keep making them? I hope so. I like music videos. This week’s picks are below.

5. Mac DeMarco – “Here Comes The Cowboy” (Dir. Cole Kush)

Tag yourself. I’m Jim Carrey in The Mask, inexplicably wearing a park ranger uniform instead of a zoot suit.

4. The Black Keys – “Go” (Dir. Bryan Schlam)

They Black Keys have good deadpan comic timing, which is another way of saying that they look funny when they’re doing absolutely nothing.

3. Schoolboy Q – “Floating” (Feat. 21 Savage) (Dir. Jack Begert & Dave Free)

A fine cinematic evocation of what happens when you get too high to properly process reality.

2. Flying Lotus – “More” (Feat. Anderson .Paak) (Dir. Shinichiro Watanabe)

Who among us has not exploded into an Akira-esque body-horror eyeball tree immediately upon contact with Anderson .Paak’s voice?

1. slowthai – “Inglorious” (Feat. Skepta) (Dir. Crowns & Owls)

People are going to say that I fucked up by not slotting the Flying Lotus video in at #1. To those people, I say: The Flying Lotus video is not an incisive commentary on the way white societies treat their minority youth, and it also features no rappers riding on tanks. If you don’t put any rappers riding on tanks in your video, and someone else does, then you lose. Sorry.