The Best Music Videos of the Month (August 2014)

The Best Music Videos of the Month for August features Action Bronson's movie, The Black Keys getting weird with models, and HAIM killing it with A$AP Ferg.

Related: The Best Music Videos of the Month (July 2014)

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2. Johnny Lloyd - "Happy Humans"

Director: Unknown

Johnny Lloyd's "Happy Humans" is effortlessly nostalgic, and the video carries its warmth and intimacy. While he's lyrically pining for someone, found footage scenes of couples, a wedding, fireworks, kids, and daily life flash by, as a gentle reminder of every moment being precious.


4. 18+ - "Crow"

Director: Unknown

When mysterious duo 18+'s song "Crow" first came out, it was hard to guess what kind of video could possibly accompany such a simultaneously catchy and haunting song. Using what appears to be a combination of found and original footage in three frames, the video mixes live performance, animalism, sexuality, and nature, along with some flies, to create a video that's as seductive as it is creepy. Given that 18+ is a visual art collective, as well, it makes sense that they'd do something less direct and obvious but still impactful.

5. Lil Wayne - "Krazy"

Director: Colin Tilley

Lil Wayne has never been afraid to make himself look "crazy" or wild in any of his videos, and "Krazy" expectedly follows suit. Whether in a straight jacket or at the mental hospital, Wayne shows that he has lots of krazy company. Even when he's getting dragged away at the end, there's a palpable, convincing defiance that make this video, and all of Wayne's videos, entertaining throughout.

6. French Montana - "Don't Panic"

Director: Eif Rivera

The The Purge: Anarchy-inspired "Don't Panic" video got early attention from Khloe Kardashian Instagramming photos of herself in a mask holding a gun on set. While French and Eif Rivera could have taken any approach to this video, they went with a humorous take on horror and even got cameos from Bobby Shmurda and Chinx (in addition to masked Khloe). And instead of a typical rap video that includes a slew of luxury cars (there is one towards the end), there's a car being burned throghout the video. This video wins by combining a familiar film genre, rap, and a reality TV star to make an overall entertaining, unexpected video.

7. Rustie ft. Danny Brown - "Attak"

Director: Peter Marsden

As far as lyric videos go, this one comes out on top. Especially when it comes to rap songs, it's nice when artists find inventive ways to show the audience what they're saying word-for-word without creating a corny, karaoke-like video. With animation help from Daniel Swan, this Rustie video, which only has Danny Brown pictured, begins with lyrics in highlighted subtitles before introducing images of money and emojis (even an eggplant emoji at 2:38 lol). As Danny Brown wilds out to his raps, the camera bounces with him and Rustie's Green Language aesthetic appears in the form of disappearing green smoke. It's not an over-the-top production, but it definitely amplifies the awesomeness of these two musicians from different worlds of music coming together.

8. Saint Millie - "Glory"

Director: APJ Films

In a song about getting away and needing space, Saint Millie literally does so in the Teedra Moses-sampling video for "Glory." In between shots of the earth's surface, you can see Millie in a space helmet rapping, smoking, and eventually disappearing into a colorful space in the universe. It's a solid representation of "Glory" lyrically and gives Saint Millie an aesthetic that he can run with going forward.

9. Nicki Minaj - "Anaconda"

Director: Colin Tilley

The long-awaited Nicki Minaj "Anaconda" video, preceded by many Instagram teasers and a "Flawless" remix with Beyonce, is all kinds of sexy. By the end, just when you think it couldn't get any crazier, Nicki gives Drake a lapdance. While initially this video could be written off as tacky or gratuitous, by the end it feels like Nicki's giving all the people who obsessively talk about her ass (and whether or not it's real) the video they never knew they wanted. Now the "only time you on the net is when you Google my ass" line resonates in a whole new way. Props to Nicki for not taking herself too seriously and pulling off some wild dance moves in the process.

10. M83 - "Lower Your Eyelids with the Sun"

Director: Yoonha Park

M83's Before the Dawn Heals Us album may have come out in 2005, but one of the song's videos, “Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun," had never been released...until this month. Bodies and items fly in slow motion before glass slowly breaks and flames engulf the frame. By the end, the universe swirls around in as much as disarray as the earth, telling a story of destruction and literally "dying with the sun."

11. Ibeyi - "River"

Director: Ed Morris

Not much happens in Ibeyi's video for "River," as twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz lay clothed underwater and sing as they dip their faces in and out of the water. This simple concept is absolutely mesmerizing, even if we have no idea how they held their breath for so long in between parts of the song. Even in its direct, more literal connection to river water, the video triumphs with piercing gazes and a mysterious aura.

12. Turan - "Departed"

Director: Sashinski

From the simple black and white shots of UK hip-hop artist Turan rapping the personal lyrics to "Departed," a flash of color meets flames, before the video changes to full color as the song reaches full intensity. Some music videos impress by being mini-movies that relegate the song to a soundtrack, but others, like Turan's "Departed," work best by visually mirroring all the peaks, troughs, and emotions of the music that they're accompanying.

13. Swet Shop Boys - "Batalvi"

Director: Unknown

This video is a humorous combination of FaceTime and found Bollywood footage that works well by being cleverly edited to the beat. The song, which is dedicated to Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi, depicts luxury and militancy with the message that "life is a slow suicide." Even if that's a very dark way of looking at it, this video pays homage to Batalvi in an uplifting way.

14. Röyksopp and Robyn - "Monument"

Director: Max Vitali

Shot with a specialized spider camera, the video for "Monument" is, at many points, an aerial, moving view of Robyn and Röyksopp and their darkly intricate song. In between scenes of space and the universe, the video seems to be as much about new horizons and frontiers in the physical world as it is about new spaces in our emotional selves. The bodies of the figures in the video move around in a confused state as a giant triangular needle hovers above them.

15. Zola Jesus - "Dangerous Days"

Director: Tim Saccenti

When presenting the video for "Dangerous Days," photographer and videographer Tim Saccenti said, “The song is a pure emotional plea, a future primitive call to arms. To create a moment of light in these dark times was our hope." Few videos pull off a juxtaposition of natural and unnatural as well as "Dangerous Days" does, whether it's the symbol in the forest or purple projections of Zola Jesus. It's a beautiful video that draws the viewer in with the allure of the scenery and surprises with the various, well-placed technical elements.

16. Chet Faker - "Gold"

Director: Hiro Murai

What seems like a simple concept—three girls rollerskating and dancing on a dark highway—gets pulled off masterfully in this video for Chet Faker's "Gold." Because even if you get distracted by how little clothes the three girls are wearing, you realize how skilled they are at doing these sequences in unison and jumping around in rollerblades. The ending scenes show Chet Faker himself post-car accident, with the girls dancing away from him as if they're actually ghosts trailing the highway. For a song that could have taken "gold" literally in its video or taken a really complicated route to get its point across, "Gold" unifies something abstract with sexiness and an ultimately dark, desolate road ahead.

17. The Black Keys - "Weight of Love"

Director: Theo Wenner

Models Lara Stone and Lily McMenamy are among a cult of women partaking in confusing rituals, including giving gifts to kids in a field, doing arm stretches, running with a rope, and watching Dan Auerbach do a religious infomercial on television. At one point, they bow to Lara Stone in a circle. The sun sets, and they get topless again, as they were in initial scenes, with their arms open to the sun. It's an entrancing, long video for a song that can wrap a listener up on its own. The visual is hypnotic.

18. Shabazz Palaces - "#CAKE"

Director: Hiro Murai

"I'm having my cake, and I'm eating cake," repeats Shabazz Palaces at the beginning of the "#CAKE" video, introducing a man running through an alley, an abandoned space, and blurry, ephemeral images. The character encounters large characters in these desolate spaces before falling into the golden cityscape. This video provides a mood as much as it provides a narrative, and even if its story is unclear, the mood is definitely one of desperation—being the last man alive and searching for answers.

19. Grimes ft. Blood Diamonds - "Go"

Director: Roco-Prime (aka Claire and Mac Boucher)

Grimes does many things well—producing, songwriting, tweeting, smoking cigars with Jay Z, and also directing her own videos. In most of her videos, there's a mixture of futurism and fashion that define Grimes' overall mystical warrior aesthetic, and "Go" is no exception. Co-directed with her brother Mac Boucher, "Go" is like a wild rave night mixed with scenes of Grimes on her own in the desert. Even if the two locations seem like they couldn't be farther apart, Grimes make them seem like they're a perfect match for the world of her music.

20. Raury - "Cigarette Song"

Director: Andrew Donoho and Carlon Ramong

Raury is one of those newer artists who "gets" how to best present his music sonically and visually. The 18-year-old singer from Atlanta, who just released his debut project Indigo Child, got everyone's attention with the song "God's Whisper" back in March. A few Outkast, Kanye West, and other big cosigns later, he released the song and video for "Cigarette Song," one of the many tender, youthful songs on Indigo Child, starring him alongside a beautiful girl who doubles as his partner and his muse. They play music, smoke cigarettes, and dance in a treehouse before burning it all down. It's a gorgeous, colorful visual that seems to juxtapose the destruction caused by cigarettes with the potential destruction of being lost in a world of love and playfulness.

Read our interview with Raury here.

 

21. HAIM ft. A$AP Ferg - "My Song 5"

Director: Dugan O'Neal

HAIM decided to have fun when releasing the video for "My Song 5," certainly one of the most experimental songs on their debut album, which didn't originally feature A$AP Ferg but sounds like it was meant for him to be on it all along. The video begins with HAIM getting their makeup done in preparation for a Maury-like daytime TV show hosted by Vanessa Bayer. Among hilarious appearances from Big Sean, Ke$ha, Ezra Koenig, and Grimes, A$AP Ferg learns that his girl is leaving him for another girl. It provides a perfect backdrop for Ferg to rap his part before all hell breaks loose for the guests of the show. It's a humorous take on an otherwise scorned heartbreak song, which makes it more entertaining than one would expect.

22. Action Bronson - "Easy Rider"

Director: Tom Gould

Action Bronson proves that he's got rockstar credibility in the video for "Easy Rider," where he roams the desert on an acid trip, stops at his lady's house, and runs from the cops. He ends the entrancing narrative with a history-making guitar solo as the sun sets. In a time when rap videos often rely on hot girls and nice cars to make a visual, Bronson shows that having fun and telling a story are way more effective and intriguing.

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