Best Of The Month

A very solid month, with a few that very well might end up on my Best of the Year list...

As always, this list should be considered highly subjective, not in any specific order (except maybe for that beautiful Shoes video at #1), and likely missing something that you love and/or made.

Without any further backpedaling and explaining, here they are...

Best Music Videos of October 2015

• The Shoes "Submarine" (Karim Huu Do, dir.)
• Florence + The Machine "Delilah" (Vincent Haycock, dir.)
• Hinds "Garden" (Pedro Martin-Calero, dir.)
• Kendrick Lamar "These Walls" (Colin Tilley, The Little Homies, dir.)
• Travis Scott f/ Kanye West "Piss On Your Grave" (NABIL, dir.)
• De Staat "Witch Doctor" (Studio Smack, Floris Kaayk, Torre Florim, dir.)
• Tyler The Creator "Buffalo" (Wolf Haley, dir.)
• Drake "Hotline Bling" (Director X, dir.)
• Stealing Sheep "Apparition" (Dougal Wilson, dir.)
• Radkey "Glore" (Nicos Livesy, dir.)
• Lazyboy Empire "Vampire" (Isaac Ravishankara, dir.)
• Will Butler "Anna" (Brantley Gutierrez, dir.)
• Jack Garratt "Breathe Life" (Andrew Donoho, dir.)
• Adele "Hello" (Xavier Dolan, dir.)
• Jeff Lynne's ELO "When I Was A Boy" (Warren Fu, dir.)
• Chairlift "Ch-Ching" (That Go, dir.)
• The Vaccines "Give Me A Sign" (Peter Huang, dir.)
• Run The Jewels "Oh My Darling (Don't Meow)" (Hectah, dir.)
• DJ Carnage "November Skies" (Saman Kesh, dir.)
• Nosaj Thing "Cold Stares" (TAKCOM, dir.)
• Homeshake "Heat" (Cole Kush, dir.)
• Panic! at the Disco "Emperor's New Clothes" (Daniel Cloud Campos, dir.)
• Failure "Counterfeit Sky" (Kevin Margo, dir.)
• Oyster Kids "Creepy" (Kamell Allaway, dir.)
• Neon Indian "Slumlord Rising" (Tim Nackashi, Alan Palomo, dir.)
• Skrillex & Diplo f/ AlunaGeorge "To U" (AG Rojas, dir.)

And now, here are the Best Music Videos of August, 2015... Hit the individual links below, or lean back and let the playlist (with nearly every listed video) do the work for ya...

Best Music Videos of August 2015 (playlist link)

• The Chemical Brothers "Sometimes I Feel So Deserted" (Ninian Doff, dir.)
• Macklemore & Ryan Lewis "Downtown" (Ryan Lewis, Jason Koenig & Ben Haggerty, dir.)
• Lil Wayne & Charlie Puth "Nothing But Trouble" (Ryan Staake, dir.)
• Taylor Swift "Wildest Dreams" (Joseph Kahn, dir.)
• Of Monsters And Men "Empire" (Tabitha Denholm, dir.)
• A$AP Rocky "Everyday" (Emmanuel Cossu, Fleur & Manu, dir.)
• Autre Ne Veut "World War Pt. 2" (Allie Avital, dir.)
• Gabrielle Aplin "Sweet Nothing" (Joe Connor, dir.)
• Tame Impala "Let It Happen" (David Wilson, dir.)
• Josef Salvat "Open Season" (Ollie Wolf, dir.)
• The Dead Weather "I Feel Love (Every Million Miles)" (Ian and Cooper, dir.)
• U2 "Song For Someone" (Matt Mahurin, dir.)
• Wolf Alice "You're A Germ" (Chris Grieder, dir.)
• Justin Bieber "What Do You Mean?" (Brad Furman, dir.)
• Silversun Pickups "Nightlight" (Mark Pellington, dir.)
• Kendrick Lamar "For Free? (An Interlude)" (Joe Weil, The Little Homies, dir.)
• Coheed And Cambria "You Got Spirit, Kid" (DJay Brawner, dir.)
• Iron Maiden "Speed Of Light" (Llexi Leon, dir.)
• Delta Heavy "Ghost" (Chris Bristow, dir.)
• Leftfield & Sleaford Mods "Head And Shoulders" (Casey + Ewan, dir.)
• The Weeknd "Tell Your Friends" (Grant Singer, dir.)
• AWWZ "AWAKE" (Eloi Colom, dir.)
• Christian Rich "Compromise" (Roboshobo, dir.)
• Lafa Taylor "Not One Thing" (Kyrian Bobeerian and Lafa Taylor, dir.)
• Le1f "Koi" (Simon Ward, dir.)
• Lana Del Rey "High By The Beach" (Jake Nava, dir.)
• The Arcs "Put a Flower in Your Pocket" (Omar Juarez, dir.)
• Chloe Martini "Get Enough" (Arek Nowakowski, dir.)
• FKA Twigs "M3LL155X" (FKA Twigs, dir.)

June ends on a bang with a pair of, well, bangers for Kendrick Lamar and Jason Derulo. But, all in all it was a another month of great stuff.

Videostatic will be moving slow from here through the July 4th weekend, but this recap of the Best Music Videos of June 2015 should keep you somewhat busy. Or, you know, you could go outside.

Best Music Videos of June 2015

• Kendrick Lamar "Alright" (Colin Tilley, dir.)
• Jason Derulo "Cheyenne" (Syndrome, dir.)
• Jack Ü f/ Justin Bieber "Where Are U Now" (Brewer, dir.)
• GENER8ION f/ M.I.A. "The New International Sound Pt. II" (Inigo Westmeier, dir.)
• Highly Suspect "Lydia" (TS&R, dir.)
• Jain "Come" (Grégory Ohrel, Lionel Hirlé, dir.)
• FIDLAR "40oz On Repeat" (Ryan Baxley, dir.)
• On an On "It's Not Over" (Carlos Lopez Estrada, dir.)
• Darwin Deez "Kill Your Attitude" (Dent De Cuir, dir.)
• Blur "Ong Ong" (Tony Hung, dir.)
• Grades "King" (Taichi Kimura, dir.)
• Kool A.D. "Hickory" (Youth Experimental Studio, dir.)
• OMAR LINX "The Wild" (Peter Huang, dir.)
• Juicy J f/ Wiz Khalifa "For Everybody" (Ruffmercy, dir.)
• Big Sean "One Man Can Change The World" (Andrew Hines, dir.)
• Big Sean f/ Chris Brown & Ty Dolla $ign "Play No Games" (Mike Carson, dir.)
• Coasts "Oceans" (Tim Mattia, dir.)
• Selena Gomez "Good For You" (Sophie Muller, dir.)
• Madonna "Bitch I'm Madonna" (Jonas Akerlund, dir.)
• Dillon Francis "Not Butter" (Brandon Dermer, dir.)
• Wise Blood "Cretin's Club" (Keith Musil, dir.)
• Naive New Beaters "Run Away" (Romain Chassaing, dir.)
• Golden Touch Interactive Video
• Savage "Like Michael Jackson" (James Chappell, dir.)
• Travie McCoy "Golden" (Scott Cudmore, Michael Leblanc, dir.)
• Dizzy Wright "False Reality" (Fredo Tovar and Scott Fleishman, dir.)
• Disturbed "The Vengeful One" (Phil Mucci, dir.)
• Mastodon "Asleep In The Deep" (Skinner, Shane Morton & Video Rahim, dir.)
• Muse "Mercy" (Sing J. Lee, dir.)
• Shawn Mendes "Stitches" (Jay Martin, dir.)
• Jay Rock "Money Trees Deuce" (Jack Begert, dir.)
• Vic Mensa f/ Kanye West "U Mad" (Grant Singer, dir.)
• AWOLNATION "I Am" (Hayley Young, dir.)
• Tourist "Holding On" (Holly Blakey, dir.)

Click the links below for credits, descriptions and pretty still pictures, or just hit the playlist and let 'er rip...

The Best Music Videos of April 2015

• ALB "The Road" (Julien Lassort, dir.)
• Snoop Dogg "So Many Pros" (Francois Rousselet, dir.)
• SonReal "For The Town" (Peter Huang, dir.)
• Tyler, The Creator "F*cking Young" (Wolf Haley, dir.)
• Kendrick Lamar "King Kunta" (Director X, dir.)
• J. Cole "Wet Dreamz" (Ryan Staake, dir.)
• Louis York "Claire Huxtable" (Warren Kommers, dir.)
• Tinashe "All Hands On Deck" (Ben Mor, dir.)
• White Shadows "Give Up Give Out Give In" (Melvin J. Montalban, Dylan Duclos, dir.)
• Django Django "Reflections" (Natalia Stuyk, dir.)
• Baden Baden "Hivers" (JAKARNO, dir.)
• Metronomy "Boy Racers" (David Wilson, dir.)
• David Hasselhoff "True Survivor" (David Sandberg, dir.)
• SBCR aka The Bloody Beetroots "The Grid" (James Chappell, dir.)
• Sia "Big Girls Cry" (Sia, Daniel Askill, dir.)
• Phantoms "Voyeur" (Ace Norton, dir.)
• Melody Gardot "Preacherman" (Calum Macdiarmid, dir.)

Without further ado...

The Best Music Videos of February 2015

• Florence + The Machine "What Kind Of Man" (Vince Haycock, dir.) [NSFW]
• Action Bronson "Actin Crazy" (Syndrome, dir.)
• Joywave "Somebody New" (Keith Schofield, dir.)
• Skrillex "Doompy Poomp" (Fleur & Manu, dir.)
• Clipping "Summertime" (Carlos Lopez Estrada, dir.)
• Rihanna x Kanye West x Paul McCartney "FourFiveSeconds" (Inez & Vinoodh, dir.)
• Taylor Swift "Style" (Kyle Newman, dir.)
• Sam Smith "Lay Me Down" (Ryan Hope, dir.)
• Kwabs "Perfect Ruin" (George Belfield, dir.)
• Nate Ruess "Nothing Without Love" (Anthony Mandler, dir.)
• Royal Blood "Out Of The Black" (David Wilson and Christy Karacas, dir.)
• Dizzee Rascal "Couple Of Stacks" (Emile Sornin, dir.)
• Girl Band "Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage" (Bob Gallagher, dir.) [NSFW]
• Black Taxi "Take Off the Edge" (Carlos Lopez Estrada, dir.)
• Siska "Unconditional Rebel" (Guillaume Panariello, dir.)
• Erevan Tusk "Growing" (Judas, dir.)
• Death Cab For Cutie "Black Sun" (Robert Hales, dir.)
• Mystery Skulls f/ Brandy & Nile Rodgers "Magic" (Double Ninja, dir.)
• Leal "Disco Ball" (Carlos Lopez Estrada, dir.)
• Chris Brown f/ Tyga "Ayo" (Colin Tilley, dir.)
• Who Is Fancy "Goodbye" (Chris Grieder, dir.)
• Gestalt "Captured" (David Dutton, dir.)
• Alt-J "Pusher" (Thomas Rhazi, dir.)
• Last Night In Paris "Pure" (Karim Huu Do, dir.)

Despite the weeks of Christmas and New Years Eve being obviously bad timing to launch a video — unless it stars Santa, Baby New Year, or a monkey man — December boasts a very healthy number of stand-out clips...

Since it's New Years Eve and time is short, I've listed them here in reverse chronological order (which coincidentally flows together nicely).

See you in 2015...

Best Music Videos of December 2014

• Jamie T "Rabbit Hole" (Roger Sargent, dir.)
• Emmy Curl "Come Closer" (Nuno Barbosa, dir.)
• Run The Jewels "Oh My Darling (Don't Cry)" (Timothy Saccenti, dir.)
• Charli XCX "Breaking Up" (BRTHR, dir.)
• Gwen Stefani f/ Pharrell Williams "Spark The Fire" (Sophie Muller, dir.)
• Chulius & The Filarmónicos "Don't" (Fermín Cimadevilla, dir.)
• Travi$ Scott f/ Rich Homie Quan & Young Thug "Mamacita" (Grant Singer, dir.)
• Gary Clark Jr. "When My Train Pulls In" (Carmela Makela, dir.)
• Ty Dolla $ign "Stand For" (The Sacred Egg, dir.)
• Clipping "Get Up" (Carlos Lopez Estrada, Cristina Bercovitz, dir.)
• Moxiie "Jilted" (Dreamtiger, dir.)
• Majid Jordan "Her" (Common Good, dir.)
• Dan Deacon "Feel The Lightning" (Andrew Jeffrey Wright, dir.)
• Nicki Minaj f/ Drake, Lil Wanye, Chris Brown "Only" (Hannah Lux Davis, dir.)
• Rag'N'Bone Man f/ Vince Staples "Hell Yeah" (Truman & Cooper, dir.)
• Imagine Dragons "I Bet My Life" (Jodeb, dir.)
• Panda Bear "Boys Latin" (Isaiah Saxon, Sean Hellfritsch, dir.)
• Viktoria Modesta "Prototype" (Saam Farahmand, dir.)
• Shy'm "L'effet De Serre" (Roy Raz, dir.)
• Casseurs Flowters "06h16 - Des Histoires à Raconter" (Greg&Lio, dir.)
• Pusha T "Lunch Money" (Emil Nava, dir.)
• Seekae "Stars Below" (Ian Pons Jewell, dir.)
• Lupe Fiasco "Deliver" (Alex Nazari, dir.)
• DJ Snake & Aluna George "You Know You Like It" (Dori Oskowitz, dir.)

While 2013 was a NSFW bonanza, with the biggest hit having the biggest, uh, exposures, and even megastar pop idols getting in on the act, 2014 didn't feel quite so dirty. That's not to say things were squeaky clean, it's just that the presence of nudity seemed to either be no big deal, or something that could be played for PoMo laughs. 

Here's 10 NSFW that really stuck out (no pun intended) from 2014... Not all are meant to titillate, but to each their own... 

• Movement "Ivory" (Fleur & Manu, dir.)
• Vengaboys "2 Brazil" (Ine & Sanne, dir.)
• Dye x Egyptian Lover "She's Bad" (Dent De Cuir, dir.)
• Perfect Hair Forever  "Sad & Blue" (Thunderlips, dir.)
• Cherub "Doses and Mimosas" (Zach Merck, dir.)
• Bastille vs. Grades "Torn Apart" (Keith Schofield, dir.)
• Steve Aoki, Diplo and Deorro "Freak" (Ryan Staake, dir.)
• Diplo & Swick "Dat A Freak" (Maxime Bruneel, dir.)
• Joywave "Tongues" (Daniels, Zak Stoltz, dir.)
• Thundercat "Tron Song" (Eric Andre, dir.)