Panopticon Blog

It was actually quite a great year for music videos: Of all the top ten lists that I have compiled this year, the music video list was hardest to narrow down to ten. Yes, budgets have gotten smaller and traditional avenues for music video viewing have narrowed. That being said, the low-budget, do it yourself aesthetic has brought videos back to the relative creative purity they enjoyed in the early days of MTV. Also, it seems like established artists have found some freedom in taking risks in the sink-or-swim ether of YouTube, Vimeo and the shiny new Vevo. These days, videos HAVE to be impressive to be seen — here’s the ten that impressed me the most in 2009:

10. Two Door Cinema Club – “I Can Talk”

Triumph of ingenuity over small budget. Beneath all the clothing swapping chaos is a surprisingly coherent, seamless (pun intended) piece of direction by Megaforce.

9. Depeche Mode – “Wrong”

Patrick Daughters is one of the few directors making large-scale videos for interesting bands blessed with big budgets. A simple, action flick concept writ large. Stunningly crafted and endlessly rewatchable.

Depeche Mode – “Wrong” (official music video)

Depeche Mode | MySpace Music Videos

8. Oren Lavie – “Her Morning Elegance”

OK, we’ve seen this technique dozens of times, but rarely as smoothly and creatively as “Her Morning Elegance.” An unbroken series of stop-motion puns worthy of Pixar send a sleeping protagonist through a cloth-hewn dream wonderland – all from the comfort of her own bed.

7. In Case of Fire – “Enemies”

Jesse Elwes is one of the best underground video directors working today, with his stop motion animation that tips its hat to the Brothers Quay while maintaining its own voice. The video for “Enemies” has a hand-crafted feel with the furious energy of an action film.

6. Home Video – “I Can Make You Feel It” AND Pheonix – “1901″

Two great performance videos from radically different bands. Home Video, local indie rockers they are, created this mesmerizing, hand-crafted clip that perfectly captures the dark throb of the song. French poppers Pheonix, on the other hand, create a similar effect with expensive, beautifully coordinated lighting.

5. Coldplay – “Life in Technicolor”

Dougal Wilson may be the best “concept” video guy since Michele Gondry, though his technique is much slicker. The idea of Coldplay puppets playing a show at a day care center is a funny skewering of their stadium ready image, and the video’s twists are increasingly bizarre and hilarious.

Coldplay – Life In Technicolor II from Rury Gonzalez on Vimeo.

4. Fever Ray – If I Had a Heart

OK, so it’s kind of aimless, but a more memorable collection of moments is harder to come by in music videos this year. There’s the guy in the mask on the shore of the river. There’s all the bodies in the empty swimming pool. And that scene with the wolf – goose-bump inducing. Director Andreas Nilsson made many Fever Ray videos this year, but “If I Had a Heart” is unquestionably the best.

If I Had A Heart from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

3. Land of Talk – “Its OK”

In a time where most music videos rely on eye-catching trickery to capture the YouTube generation’s short attention span, how refreshing is Land of Talk’s gorgeous “It’s OK.” The languorous pace set by the song is matched by director WeWereMonkey’s stunning black and white landscapes and hallucinatory images. Such rich attention to detail is certainly worth multiple spins.

2. Chairlift – Evident Utensil AND OK Go – WTF?

Under the guidance of lo-fi specialist Ray Tintori, Chairlift’s “Evident Utensil” was the first, and best, video to use “data moshing” technique – essentially controlling and dramatizing digital tear for aesthetic purposes. The technique is impressive – the creativity and fluidity of the video is even more so. The same can be said for OK Go’s goofier but no less impressive video “WTF?” The content may be silly, as per usual for OK Go, but the choreography of ever-overlapping color is mind-boggling.

OK Go – WTF? from OK Go on Vimeo.

1. Grizzly Bear – Two Weeks

One of the (many) great things about Grizzly Bear is how weird they are if you dig just below their polite surface. No video to date has illustrated this as effectively as Patrick Daughters’ fittingly out-of-left-field vision for the pop gem “Two Weeks.” Daughters’ use of subtle special effects (compositing facial features from different takes, subtly enlarging the bands’ eyes and mouths) is the stuff of hallucinations, and the slow-burn (ha ha) to the video’s unsettling/hilarious climax begs repeat viewings.