It only sense that the Grammys serves as the new music lauch for so many artists, but the sheer number of great videos that dropped on Sunday/Monday is worth recapping. I mean, all those folks who do weekly Best Of recaps can take the rest of the week off, because these might prove to be hard to top. And you don't need to spend $1.77 to any of them.
Here's what you may have missed:
Rihanna "Stay" (Sophie Muller, director) - The one take version of this video is an instant classic even if it's now seemingly been pulled after an official leak... But the official one hits the same notes...
As our own Doug Stern has said here before, lots of labels and artists toy with the idea of doing these intense close-in portraiture videos, but usually blink and go in a different direction. Why? Here's the money quote from his 2008 post:
"Let's face it: A four minute close-up is tough for almost anybody to pull off, let alone a less than fascinating artist and a pedestrian song. If all the pieces don't fall into place, the director will end up with a video that looks more like a glossy webchat."
Rihanna has all of that firmly in place, on both a personal and professional level, in addition to perfect timing after the Grammys. (Also, this is a great reminder that director Sophie Muller is still one of the best after 25 years of consistently successful videos. Respect. )
Beck "Sound And Vision" (Chris Milk, director) — This isn't really a music video, which will become much clearer once the interactive 360 degree version drops. But, even this linear tease is bigger and better than most performance clips. And Chris Milk is the director to watch when it comes to knocking down the traditional boundaries of music video.
James Blake "Retrograde" (Martin de Thurah, director) — I wish I knew why more people didn't click this. I even made a point to say it was beautiful in the twitter blast. Great intensity and a great payoff on a bigger scale than we've ever seen from Martin de Thurah — who is kind of like the Velvet Underground of music video directors: The masses don't know him, but almost everyone who does has either picked up a camera or dug deeper in the artistic side of MVs.
Foals " My Number" (Us, directors) — Number in the song title leads to numbers on screen leads to connect the dots and then the skeletal grid gets filled in and the surround world and onward. A great idea that's executed to perfection.
What else?
- Director Mimi Cave opening doors into a new life for Jim James --> watch "A New Life"
- An extended war/love metaphor by director Daniel "Cloud" Campos for Paramore's anthemic comeback blast --> watch "Now"
- Drake and Director X having fun in the sun and the snow --> watch "Started From The Bottom"
Not bad for a Monday. Let's see what comes the rest of the week...
