A 'Best Ever Videos' List? Really?

Lists here, lists there, lists everywhere on the World Wide Web. They're ridicuous. The value of a 'best ever' list ends as soon as you've read it. Your taste isn't the same as the person's who devised the list. And when we're talking about pop culture, what could be more disposable?

However, here is a list of favourite music videos. Mine, just mine. Its main purpose is to remind me of them - then I can go straight to YouTube and watch them. They're all there. You may have noticed I have a 'Desert Island Discs' page. But this isn't really appropriate for that. Partly because of the inevitable confusion with the 'favourite music' theme. A lot of 'best ever videos' lists I've seen are clearly lists of someone's favourite music, when they've simply gone and found the video made for the various songs. Not here. These are film pieces. True, they are all for songs I like. But in my humble opinion, with each one, a film maker with skill has taken the music up a level and created art. No worries if you don't agree, though I'd ask you to check if that isn't just because you don't like the songs. Appreciate the video as a thing in itself. Sometimes it's here for its humour; sometimes there's a genius 3/4 minute drama; sometimes it's innovative video trickery; sometimes it's great cinematography. See for yourselves.

Figure It Out - Royal Blood

Great rock song, with its bass lead guitar. But this is a perfect little film, using trick colour filters to keep you puzzling about what's going on. You have to 'figure it out', geddit? Brilliant start: barefoot girl walks into a cafeteria in a mall: why is everyone backing away from her? Then we see why. The ending is a neatly delivered surprise. But it's the actress (Stella Maeve) who really sells it, dodging security guards etc without ever trying to kid you she's as strong as them, utterly convincing as...(spoiler!)

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana

So hard to portray anarchy and yet not fall apart from being anarchic as you make it :) But this video comes close. There's definitely some loss of control as the crowd start spilling over the scene. The whole thing is heaving. But by the end the chaos has been well shepherded. Simple effective use of the 'janitor'. Love it, especially the 'anti-cheerleaders' with their anarchy logos and total lack of blondeness. The band all hair and energy. Does justice to an iconic song.

Gay Bar - Electric Six

Ha ha yes this startled me when I first saw it. My shock was less to do with the blatant homoeroticist provocation, but the extreme irreverance of dressing up as BDSM Abraham Lincolns. I thought, they're American, how on earth are they getting away with it? You can't do this to Abraham Lincoln!! This was my introduction to a band who take no prisoners and make it work for them, being (sort of) under the radar. Love this video for its cheerful outrageousness. Though annoyed at some of the lyrics being censored. NB link only works at time of this posting. It gets regularly taken down. Can't think why.

Something Good '08 - Utah Saints

Here's a song considerably transmogrified from the one which Kate Bush wrote. But I gather she loves it. As you can tell from the title it's been out more than once. And has had more than one video made for it. This is the one to watch, tells a cute and very silly story of a guy introducing the 'Running Man' dance into South Wales night clubs. Totally absurd and with a very funny pay off at the end. Gorgeous girls, fantastic choreography and brilliant upbeat music; a comic delight from beginning to end.

Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack

I have watched this many many times and have never not found it profoundly moving. You wouldn't know it from a one line description: Shara Nelson walks along a straight street and sings the song. Wonderful voice, she reaches into depths of the human soul with the lyric. It's not perfect I think; some of the bystanders and pedestrians (and legless skateboarder) are a little too organised/arranged. But the simple concept lets this poignant and melancholy masterpiece work its emotional brilliance on us.

Hate to Say I Told You So - The Hives

The Hives are the one band here I've seen live, and I still rank it as the best live show I've been at. With this song they were everywhere for a period. And if you've seen only one of these videos, I bet it's this one. The idea is that the band play the song in a studio, and we're watching it on a dodgy tv screen. They're a bit punk you see, but thankfully with lots of knowing humour. And they do a very clever freeze frame at the heart of the video. Maybe nothing special in what I've said, except that The Hives are a VERY energetic band and the video serves that up well.

Summernight City - Therion

What do ABBA fans make of this? I suspect they're a little nonplussed. It's very very different in tone from the original. For starters, Therion are a Swedish metal band with a penchant for operatic singers. Which you get here. The lyrics are unchanged, but given a satirical and very ironic twist, by a film which is all about class. The setting is sepia 1920s-ish (I suppose) and it portrays the arrival (via a steam train accompanied by some excellent metal chugging) at a lavish party at an old mansion, attended by members of privileged high society. "...My kind of people everywhere..." Watch this! Start the revolution! (well, in your mind)

Fast and Frightening - L7

Though not from the punk era, 90s rather than mid 70s, L7 are more punk than anything, much more convincingly 'don't care' than any of the other later 'punk' bands. The video's method is typical of a lot of hard rock bands, to film the band playing the song. Seems so simple, except that Hollywood director Gore Verbinski does a genius job with punk style cuts and overlays. The band and the instruments are all there, though Donita Sparks is the main focus. She's terrific in this. She's charismatic and defies any kind of sexist nonsense about women in rock. It's a great song but from everything I've heard and read it was in the live sets that they really shined. Near impossible to catch that in a video; so this one is a perfect substitute.

So, a page for me, an aide memoire; but great if anyone's bothered to have a look and then go and see some of the videos. No doubt I'll add another video or two later, when I remember favourites from the past, or discover new ones.