Floating heads shooting lasers, machete wielding mad men, exploding gingers and Lady Gaga.
You're probably asking yourself what all of these things have in common. If you said, 'things you see while dropping acid,' you aren't that far off. Actually, those scenes are just some of the oddball imagery featured in the very unique music videos conjured by directors so far this year.
Actually, oddly, music videos are pretty hot all of a sudden, with giant corporations viciously fighting to control them. As it turns out, people actually want to watch them.
Who knew? Not MTV!
These videos are a testament to the continued relevance of a medium many had written off completely. They're bizarre, certainly, but keep in mind that just because labeled as bizarre DOES NOT mean that they are bad. In fact, most of these are among the best videos to come out this year.
10. Hot Chip - "I Feel Better"
For the video for "I Feel Better," UK electropop outfit Hot Chip enlisted the help of British funny man Peter Serafinowicz to direct the video. Most fans will probably remember Serafinowicz from the film Shaun of the Dead or as the voice of Darth Maul from The Phantom Menace. The resulting video is as funny as it is bizarre.
9. Owen Pallett -"Lewis Takes Off His Shirt"
When you consider that Owen Pallet's album Heartland is a concept album in which the main character Lewis, who is lives on a fictional world called Spectrum, is having dialogues about his creator, Owen Pallett, it kind of makes sense that a video for a track off this album would be a little weird. I'm sure there is meaning behind all this seemingly random imagery, now if someone can just explain what that imagery means.
8. Die Antwoord - "Enter the Ninja"
Appearance alone may be enough to qualify this video bizarre. But this South African hip-hop group just may be the next big thing. Good luck getting this song out of your head.
7. LCD Soundsystem - "Drunk Girls"
James Murphy must have really done something to piss off Spike Jonze, because he puts LCD Soundsystem through hell in this video.
6. M.I.A - "Born Free"
This controversial video was pulled off of YouTube for a short amount of time due to its graphic violence. Thanks to the power of Twitter, though, the video was put back up with a warning in front of it. It's is pretty graphic, and batshit crazy, too, so be warned.
5. MGMT - "Flash Delirium"
Andreas Nilsson is no stranger to bizarre music videos. In 2009, he directed several very bizarre video for Swedish songstress Fever Ray. For the first video off MGMT's album Congratulations he takes us inside the most bizarre dinner party in history.
4. HEALTH - "We Are Water" (NSFW-ish)
In a perfect world all music videos would be directed by Eric Wareheim. Wareheim, who is probably best known for his work on the show Tim & Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job! but he's also directed videos from everyone from MGMT to Ben Folds. Usually his videos have been a bit more bizarre in a light hearted kind of way. Here he goes for a full on terrifying video.
3. Grinderman - "Heathen Child" (NSFW)
Nick Cave has always tended to be a little on the weird side. As you are probably already aware of if you're familiar with one of Cave's side project Grinderman. But as far as Grinderman videos go this one definitely takes the cake. And hey, the guy from the Hot Chip video is in this one, too. The video was directed by John Hillcoat, who earlier this year directed the film The Road and also directed the Nick Cave written film The Proposition.
2. Lady Gaga - "Telephone"
It's a Lady Gaga video.
1. Yeasayer - "Madder Red"
Making his second appearance on the list is video director Andreas Nilsson. This time he managed to get Forgetting Sarah Marshall star Kristen Bell to be in the video. There isn't really any accurate way to describe this video; it's just one of those you have to watch.
