Bubblegum goddesses. Wannabe Debbie Harrys. Dystopian mental illnesses. Solo rock shows in a mystical desert landscape...These are the videos that stood out in 2015 for their strangeness, abstraction, and beauty. And good tunes, of course.
1. Petite Noir - Chess
The Cape Town artist Petite Noir (Yannick Ilunga) sings cool, dramatic, hypnotic pop in what feels like a late-80s instructional VHS tape. The slowly bubbling (literally, bubbles) breakup song was the first single off Petite Noirโs first album, La Vie Est Belle / Life Is Beautiful.
2. Son Lux - You Don't Know Me
God, donโt you hate it when your boyfriend doesnโt understand youโre a terrifying bubblegum goddess? โYou Donโt Know Me,โ starring Orphan Blackโs Tatiana Maslany, is creepy, but somehow relatable. Ultimately, says director Nathan Johnson says the video wants to explore the โempty ritualsโ of relationships, and to a larger degree, religion. โYou Donโt Know Meโ comes off Son Luxโs (Ryan Lottโs) fourth studio album Bones.
3. HONNE - Coastal Love
โCoastal Loveโ feels part fashion film, part white-collar crime, and part psychedelic deep-ocean love story. The words โIโll be waiting for you, my love, on this New York City coastโ play over images of a dark & dreamy Montauk motel. This is one of the few times I think, โIf Iโm going to pass out on the beach with a stranger, going in a lustful haze with a weird sea creature on my face might be the best way to do it.โ โCoastal Loveโ comes off HONNEโs newest EP by the same name.
4. ABRA - U Know
Abraโs woozy R & B is paired with a ghost/love story between the Awful Recordsโ it-girl and skater Lil Phillips. The DIY-feely music video is a collaboration with UNIF clothing, and comes off Abraโs first album Roses.
5. Lower Dens - To Die in L.A.
Magic 8 balls, wannabe movie stars, Debbie Harry obsessions, and a dead buck floating in a swimming poolโsuch is the crazy world of โTo Die in L.A.โ by Lower Dens. The first single off Lower Densโ second record Escape from Evil is a synth-rock dream of a vulnerable Los Angeles.
6. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Can't Keep Checking My Phone
We start with the subtitle, โItโs one of those rare, unexplainable things,โ which suits the video well, in the best way. The videoโdirected by Dimitri Basilโfeatures a semi-sci-fi catalogue of mental illnesses and unexplained phenomena, including โMeteorite Sicknessโ and โVirtual Gender Disphoria.โ The song, which is full of catchy beats and seemingly-simple lyrics, becomes complicated against the โtrading deckโ of the abstract, the dystopian, and the strange. Canโt Keep Checking My Phone can be found on Unknown Mortal Orchestraโs newest album Multi-Love.
7. Hurts - Lights
โLightsโ is the age-old tale of being too fucked up and too alone in a half-populated bar. This time, instead of the classic random hook-up we get a graceful dance between matador and bull. This barโs patrons also include a woman wrapped in a giant plastic bag and a zombie baseball player. โLightsโ was the first single off the Manchester duo Hurtsโs third album Surrender.
8. The Soft Moon - Far
Is there anything more angsty than dark alleyways, disfigured men, and speeding down the 101 in a blue-and-red psychedelic daze? Dark and nostalgic, the video doesnโt lose its depth. โโFarโ is the realm where unconscious desires reign, and the darkest tendencies take root and flourish. There, the โhIDeousโ clone assaults the ego, the shadow self stalks the night, and a third Shroud embodies the two hemispheres locked in perpetual battle,โ director duo Y2K explains. โFarโ comes off Soft Moonโs album Deeper, which was released this February.
9. Alex G - Brite Boy
A soft tune called โBrite Boyโ off Alex Gโs newest album entitled Beach Music might suggest happy, carefree vibes. Instead, we get a dark cartoon by Elliot Bech, featuring cemetery rituals, desert funerals, and a watertower that welcomes you to a ghost town called โFuck.โ Beach Music marks Alex Ginnascoliโs seventh full-length album, and he gets weirder and darker every time. โBrite Boyโ zines made by Bech himself will be sold along Alex Gโs next tour.
10. LA Priest - Oino
Itโs a strange desert landscape where curious beasts lurk in the canyons, and Sam Eastgate (aka Samuel Dust) plays high-pitched riffs in the desolate dirt. Directed by his brother Isaac Eastgate, the video was apparently inspired by their granddadโs story of โa man imprisoned in the desert who escapes by singing to a wizard.โ I feel the mystic vibes. โOinoโ was LA Priestโs debut single for a solo album eight years in the making. His album Inji is out now.
11. Silicon - God Emoji
A papier machรฉ robot drives out to the middle of the forest to lay down catchy beats on the keyboard and the drums. Meanwhile, a weird dismembered pixelated head floats about an apartment building while a soft voice sings, โDonโt wanna go out on a Saturday night.โ โGod Emojiโ is weird, but sticks with you through its abstractions and grooves. New Zealand multi-instrumentalist Kody Nielsonโs debut album Personal Computer is out now.
12. Hot Chip - Need You Now
Hot Chipโs newest album, Why Make Sense? fits well with the music video for โNeed You Now.โ Itโs strange, abstract, cyclical, and convoluted. A man runs after his double (or is his double chasing him?). He disappears, reappears, runs away, and is chased by a third double. Ultimately, however, the complex and the metaphysical fade into a simple story of refusing to let love go, as the words, โNeed you now,โ repeat themselves in the background. โNeed You Knowโ is off the British electronic music bandโs sixth album.
13. Julia Holter - Silhouette
Julia Holterโs โSilhouetteโ is jumpy, grainy, and indulgent in its shadows. It is also sentimental, nostalgic, and a melancholy kind of sweet. Holter sings, โHe can hear me sing, though he is far, I'll never lose sight of him, a silhouette.โ The song and the video remind me how love can make you crazy--sprawled out across your desk with nothing to do but turn the lights on and off, close and open the blinds, and write clichรฉs about him in your diary. Holterโs latest record Have You in my Wilderness was released this September.
Text by Keely Shinners