Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be writing about a number of my favorite things of 2012, as opposed to doing my usual Top 10 list. This will cover films, albums, songs, music videos, performances, or whatever else that pops into my head.
Though I'm never current when it comes to music videos, I can say without any hesitation that the best video of 2012 is Grimes' "Oblivion." The first single off her widely lauded LP Visions, "Oblivion" finds the artist in several different sporting locales: a monster truck rally, the stands of an arena during a football game, two different locker rooms (one with toweled men lifting weights, the other with shirtless men moshing), the concession stand, and some bro-ed out tailgate party. If the video were trying to be ironic, it wouldn't have worked, but there's a certain charming authenticity to Grimes' music, her persona, and especially this video. She feels a bit more genuine than the oddball girl in your middle-school class, who was likely just trying to be "weird." The video, directed by Emily Kai Bock, really begins to stand apart (and above) most of the videos I've seen this year when a girl runs up behind her, pulling her hood up. It certainly feels like a spontaneous moment, and once you see Grimes usher a fan to run across the screen as he politely waits offscreen for them to stop filming. The video is dynamic, surprising, bizarre (without looking like its trying to be), cute, sexy, homoerotic, and endearing. It's a shame then that the best track on Visions, "Genesis," would have such a mess of a video to go along with it. Video below.
No comments:
Post a Comment