The Most Creative Music Videos of May 2014

The music videos released in the past month are high energy and explore places all over the world, from TALA's collage of footage from Marrakesh to Eminem's reunion with his mother in Detroit. Many videos also hired professionals to take these videos to the next level, whether it be the daredevil in Klangkarussell's video or 11-year-old dancer Maddie Ziegler in Sia's video. A few animated music videos stood out as well, including Pharrell's remix for visual artist Takashi Murakami and Faces on Film's "The Rule."

Take a journey inside Young Thug's mind, see Lana Del Rey in the flames again, and watch Flying Lotus' desert mummy in The Most Creative Music Videos of May 2014.

Director: Johannes Greve Muskat

The first of a series of three videos creative directed by Luke Gilford, How To Dress Well's "Repeat Pleasure" explores a different form of heartbreak—a familial one. In addition to being shot beautifully with soft light and vacant landscapes, it's tender in its exploration of pure intentions that don't always have positive results. It's worth giving your undivided attention to from start to finish.

Director: Be El Be

Apparently when Young Thug missed one of his first two cover shoots for our magazine, he was truly filming the music video for "Stoner," one of his hottest songs. The video is as wild and hilarious as Thug himself; at times he's all red and at other times he's in HDR. Willie Nelson makes an appearance, and Thug's stoned friends have weird hallucinations. It's as much an ode to stoner life as it is an intro to Thug's smoky, technicolor, energetic world.

Director: Vincent Haycock

Lana Del Rey's "West Coast" video set the tone for her forthcoming album Ultraviolence earlier this month. As with many of her previous visual offerings, she's cast alongside other male characters (including Bradley Soileau, who was previously in "Born to Die" and "Blue Jeans"), except this time she's on the beach, in the passenger's seat of a car, and in the flames (like she was at the end of "Born to Die," also). It's hard to tell whether the song means she's "in love" with the music, the West Coast, or her man, but regardless, Lana remains more seductive, mysterious, and creative than ever.

Director: Uzi, Ash Travers, and Mike Waxx

On first watch, Uzi's "Money" video is a cross between an oversaturated video game scene in LA and someone's personal VHS footage collected over time. By surface value only, it's definitely both of those things, but by the end, you get the sense that it's more, maybe even an extremely self-aware take on today's young people (Uzi included), who are inspired by hip-hop, rave culture, a barrage of images online, and the shifting meaning of fame (and its epicenter, Hollywood) in the digital age. It's glitchy, it's random, it's New York, it's L.A., and it doesn't take itself seriously, but it's honest.

Directors: Jesse Kanda and Arca

The videos Jesse Kanda makes aren't always made to be easily digestible or comfortable; in fact, it seems like he aims for the opposite, especially in recent film work he's done for FKA Twigs and Arca. Part of Arca and Kanda's collaborative film project TRAUMA, "Harness" puts the camera inside someone's mouth and loops various parts of the footage. It's jarring and gross, but it's also a really raw way to express the song and its eccentricity.

Directors: Spike Lee

Eminem's "Headlights" video is initially shot through the eyes of his mother in Detroit. She smokes cigarettes, watches television, and goes through photo albums before the viewer sees Em and his mom reunite and hug. It's powerful, especially in the scene where he writes her an apology note and goes through photos of him as a kid. While the context of him doing this for Mother's Day is pretty central to its impact, it's a spectacular, well-sequenced tribute to all mothers and to where Eminem grew up.

Director: Markus Hofko

While "Phantasm" may be an older song off of Flying Lotus' 2012 Until the Quiet Comes album, its new video is as fresh as music videos get. Directed by the accomplished Markus Hofko, the video follows a mummy-like figure and a furry creature through the desert. The figure unravels to reveal a glowing form who gets put back together by his furry friend. The song is soft and haunting, and the video is an endearing, light-hearted compliment.

Director: Carlos Lopez Estrada

Faces on Film may not be the most recognizable name on this list, but their video for "The Rule" is a winner. Animated flames take over suburbia, which may be a comment on global warming and climate change (or sinkholes?), but it seems to be more of a comment on change in general. Later in the video, a flood comes and makes way for a sprout. It's simple but executed well and flows with the "I don't wanna notice my own time" vibe of the song, or as Mike from the band says, "something about the idea of loss and redemption as a cycle, taking turns overpowering each other."

Directors: Yellow Nguyen and Moosa

Lots of music videos rely on footage of cities and streets to build narrative, but few do it as effectively as "Hoover Street," which is a visual journey throughout Schoolboy Q's childhood. He discovers guns, robs a food truck, and deals with family drama as the camera flashes back to him at various ages, including his present self. It shows how violence enters a young person's life in the hood as he's on a greater journey of self-discovery.

Director: Charlie Robins

Klangkarussell's "Netzwerk (Falls Like Rain)" follows Ukrainian daredevil Mustang Wanted on a journey in Belgrade, Serbia. It's a terrifying yet exciting view of his adventures up and down buildings with both a main camera and a GoPro.

Director: Maxime Quoilin

Cid Rim's "Animus/Anima" premiered on Channel 4 in the UK on April 30, but no one got to see it online until May 5. It inverts the way we typically see urban life, as in, people in a city. Instead, we see the city through a person, and not just any person, a nimble dancer. While lots of videos go extra lengths to simplify visually and incorporate the female body, this one does so tastefully and in a way that highly complements the song.

Director: Ricky Saiz

Cam'ron and A-Trak gave us a perfect summer anthem with "Dipsh*ts," which we premiered on Complex. The video captures the unmistakable, glorious energy of uptown and includes appearances by Cat Power, Chromeo, and Venus X.

Directors: Barzolff814 and Wang Jay Moon

Handbraekes is the collaboration of Boys Noize and Mr. Oizo, whose video for "Bravo" is entertaining and fitting for both the song's mood and their band name. Suddenly small, identical figures surround a literal handbrake, multiplying and getting more animated as the song builds. Soon it becomes unclear what the gathering is—is it a ritual, a rave? The movements get more subtle, but it's an enticing watch nonetheless, ending where it started, with just a handbrake.

Director: David Wilson

When Arcade Fire captioned the video for "We Exist" with, "Our film follows the story of a young person's struggle with gender identity," they probably didn't think it'd be met with controversy, especially for the team's decision to work with known actor, Andrew Garfield. Against Me! frontwoman Laura Jane Grace took to Twitter, asking why they didn't get "an actual 'Trans' actor instead of Spider-Man," while others on Twitter pointed out transgender stereotypes in the video that could be seen as offensive.

Apparently, the team considered casting a trans actor, but Garfield convinced director David Wilson of his commitment to the vision for "We Exist." Wilson says, "Andrew's commitment and passion toward the project was just overwhelming. For an actor of that caliber to be that emotionally invested in a music video is just a very special thing." Regardless of the stereotypes it may or may not invoke, the video's narrative carries passion and triumph despite the character's struggle in exploring his gender. It's stunningly shot, and Garfield's ascension onto the music festival stage makes for a brilliant ending.

Director: Carlos Lopez Estrada

Not a lot happens in clipping.'s "Work Work" video, but it's the suspense and near-awkwardness of a guy's head being held captive by a girl's foot that makes it an excellent compliment to the song. In the first scenes alone, it's not clear whether or not the guy's teeth are stuck on a table, a fence, or anything else. It all comes full circle with the rats, but we won't spoil it.

Director: M.I.A.

It's easy to be distracted by how cool M.I.A. looks in all of her music videos (THOSE GRILLS), so much that you might forget the real message she's trying to share. For "DBT," she begins with an intro to 3D printed guns before going into scenes of young people smoking, dancing, and making out. While she makes the phenomenon of easily duplicated weaponry an easier pill to swallow—via the fashion and badass attitude of the video—she points to a new kind of trouble. Essentially the "double bubble trouble" has two sides—one where society's worried about kids' access to sex and drugs, and one where society should be more worried about kids' increasing access to violence.

Director: Takashi Murakami

This month, visual artist Takashi Murakami screens his Jellyfish Eyes film in select U.S. theaters. To promote it, he called on his friend Pharrell Williams to remix the movie's theme song. Titled "Last Night, Good Night (Re:Dialed)," the remix has its own music video animated by Murakami, which has Pharrell in a world of robots, jellyfish, and dancing. It combines the allure and excitement of anime with the futuristic vision of two creative friends.

Director: Katia Ganfield

TĀLĀ is a young artist based in London whose song "Serbia" has a layered video showing life in Marrakesh. Filled alternately with TV glitches, footage of the Atlas Mountains, henna tattooing, and people dancing in the street, it's an abstract tribute to Srđan Spasojević's A Serbian Film and a fitting collage for her alternative pop sound.

Director: Ben Dawkins

More and more, it seems that fan-made music videos are on-point in communicating a genuine narrative, which can get lost in an artist's desire to sell their image in a particular way. Burial's Rival Dealer EP, which came out in December 2013, had no music videos, but it didn't stop The Sweetshop from getting his permission to make a short film inspired by the music. The result is mesmerizing; you get inside the head of a literal "dealer" and his internal conflicts against the lights of the city and the club.

Director: Sia and Daniel Askill

Sia's "Chandelier" on its own is a powerful song about her struggle to get sober, but even without that context, the video is remarkable. 11-year-old Maddie Ziegler caught Sia's eye from the reality TV show Dance Moms, and she reached out to her with choreographer Ryan Heffington for the video. Maddie agreed, and with a small budget and precise vision, they executed this masterpiece of dance, performance, and artistic expression.