C'est Non Un Blog's Top 20 Music Videos of 2012 (Part 4)
We're getting down to the final stretch here. Videos 5-8 up next:
8. Best Coast - Only Place
Despite the fact the "Only Place" referenced in this song, Los Angeles, couldn't be more different from where I live, Seattle, I kind of feel like this song is the unofficial anthem to my newly adopted hometown. Not only is there the chorus, "Why would you live anywhere else? / This is the only place for me", but there's also the band's name itself, Best Coast, a reference to the popular local rhyme, "The west coast is the best coast." The whole package just makes me feel at home and all warm and fuzzy inside, and the video superbly visualizes this ode to having fun. All the video really consists of is the band having fun fucking around, and yet it's so genuine and free-spirited that you can't help but watch the video with a big cheese-eating grin on your face.
7. Haim - Forever
Haim's "Forever" is one of the most impressive debut tracks by any new artist this year. I mean, listen to it. I'll wait. Have you listened yet? Is this song not badass? Told you. These three sisters from LA know how to rock your fucking ass off. They're so amazing that I'm kind of annoyed that they bothered to include those motorcyclists doing burnouts in the video. Do we really need them? No, not really. I don't know about you, but I'd rather see more of the sisters dancing in the salon. The fun they're having playing together is so infectious that it's basically equivalent to a war crime to cut away from them. Fuck those bikers. Fuck 'em.
6. Tensnake - Mainline (feat. Syron)
And the award for best looking video of 2012 goes to Tensnake for this gorgeous video for the equally infectious "Mainline". I don't know why most American's are now so allergic to black and white photography. Look at this. Isn't it beautiful? And the choice to add 90's-era pastel-colored effects to amp up the video was a brilliant choice. In a year filled with 90's nostalgia, this song more than any other grasped the essence of what the decade was about while elevating it to new contemporary heights. It took me about five seconds of listening to "Mainline" to realize that this was a goddamn brilliant song. Man, I love it. In a year that will probably be better remembered for the shit Skrillix put out, club music should be remembered for this gem.
Tensnake featuring Syron - Mainline (Official Video) from DEFECTED RECORDS on Vimeo.
5. Flight Facilities - Clair De Lune (feat. Christine Hoberg)
While I would have rather preferred to include Flight Facilities' "With You" on this list, arguably the greatest song of 2012, I did find the video for it a little lacking. I still don't get the editing of the video. It feels like they cut the middle part into the end and then I don't know what. It just feels like somebody fucked something up in the making of it. Despite my feelings that "With You" is the better song, that shouldn't in anyway diminish how amazing a track "Clair De Lune" is. Flight Facilities have some of the best production values of anyone out there in any genre and it shows in spades with this song. If you haven't listened to it yet with headphones on then you really don't know what you're missing out on. It's so rare that you can tell a complete story in the space of a single song, and if "With You" failed at that task, "Clair De Lune" succeeds spectacularly, telling the story of two friends whose innocent shenanigans start off with minor shoplifting but then escalate towards a tragic conclusion. It's a story of that transitional period into adulthood when reality crashes in on you and you realize that things can't stay they way they were forever. No one wants to let go of that feeling and this song/video captures the melancholy that comes from making that transition in your life.
8. Best Coast - Only Place
Despite the fact the "Only Place" referenced in this song, Los Angeles, couldn't be more different from where I live, Seattle, I kind of feel like this song is the unofficial anthem to my newly adopted hometown. Not only is there the chorus, "Why would you live anywhere else? / This is the only place for me", but there's also the band's name itself, Best Coast, a reference to the popular local rhyme, "The west coast is the best coast." The whole package just makes me feel at home and all warm and fuzzy inside, and the video superbly visualizes this ode to having fun. All the video really consists of is the band having fun fucking around, and yet it's so genuine and free-spirited that you can't help but watch the video with a big cheese-eating grin on your face.
Click to view7. Haim - Forever
Haim's "Forever" is one of the most impressive debut tracks by any new artist this year. I mean, listen to it. I'll wait. Have you listened yet? Is this song not badass? Told you. These three sisters from LA know how to rock your fucking ass off. They're so amazing that I'm kind of annoyed that they bothered to include those motorcyclists doing burnouts in the video. Do we really need them? No, not really. I don't know about you, but I'd rather see more of the sisters dancing in the salon. The fun they're having playing together is so infectious that it's basically equivalent to a war crime to cut away from them. Fuck those bikers. Fuck 'em.
6. Tensnake - Mainline (feat. Syron)
And the award for best looking video of 2012 goes to Tensnake for this gorgeous video for the equally infectious "Mainline". I don't know why most American's are now so allergic to black and white photography. Look at this. Isn't it beautiful? And the choice to add 90's-era pastel-colored effects to amp up the video was a brilliant choice. In a year filled with 90's nostalgia, this song more than any other grasped the essence of what the decade was about while elevating it to new contemporary heights. It took me about five seconds of listening to "Mainline" to realize that this was a goddamn brilliant song. Man, I love it. In a year that will probably be better remembered for the shit Skrillix put out, club music should be remembered for this gem.
Tensnake featuring Syron - Mainline (Official Video) from DEFECTED RECORDS on Vimeo.
5. Flight Facilities - Clair De Lune (feat. Christine Hoberg)
While I would have rather preferred to include Flight Facilities' "With You" on this list, arguably the greatest song of 2012, I did find the video for it a little lacking. I still don't get the editing of the video. It feels like they cut the middle part into the end and then I don't know what. It just feels like somebody fucked something up in the making of it. Despite my feelings that "With You" is the better song, that shouldn't in anyway diminish how amazing a track "Clair De Lune" is. Flight Facilities have some of the best production values of anyone out there in any genre and it shows in spades with this song. If you haven't listened to it yet with headphones on then you really don't know what you're missing out on. It's so rare that you can tell a complete story in the space of a single song, and if "With You" failed at that task, "Clair De Lune" succeeds spectacularly, telling the story of two friends whose innocent shenanigans start off with minor shoplifting but then escalate towards a tragic conclusion. It's a story of that transitional period into adulthood when reality crashes in on you and you realize that things can't stay they way they were forever. No one wants to let go of that feeling and this song/video captures the melancholy that comes from making that transition in your life.