Music on Sunday: Favorite Videos of 2014

[a2zmom]

I already listed 2 of my favorites last week, Digital Witness by St. Vincent and Two Weeks by Fka Twigs. The rest are listed in no particular order, except for the final one, which was my favorite of the year.

"Queen" by Perfume Genius

Gay panic, taken to its logical extremes. I am really looking forward to the whole album.

Click to view

"Blank Space" by

Comments

[makd]

Haven't seen many videos this past year, however, I do love Megan Trainor's (spell?)"all about that bass", and loved it.

Tacky is hilarious!!! Weird Al's a wizard. Did he ever do a spoof of "you can call me Al"?

by the way - love your sunday music posts. I don't always post, but I do read 'em, listen, and love. Thank you for doing them; you're not only teaching me, you're sharing great music. ::loves::

[a2zmom]

Music should always be shared, so glad you're enjoying. I just came across Trainor's video the other day. While I think the video is cute, the song is a perfect pop confection and I already ordered it from my library.
Weird Al doing "Call Me Al" - now that would be funny. Tacky is brilliant right down to the celebrity cameos and the spot on lyrics.

[evil_little_dog]

I liked all the videos I looked at, but the last one, the imagery about the boy and the girl driving off in the hearse and the other kids following just made me think of the cans tied to the back of cars in a wedding ceremony. So, leaving church in dancing exhultation, with a car, and "noise makers" - is it a funeral, or a marriage?

[a2zmom]

Oh, that is such a great insight. I guess, just like marriage, death is just another turning point in our lives.

[evil_little_dog]

Thanks! It just seemed like that was the imagery to pick out of it, despite the coffins and the funeral aspects.

[cornerofmadness]

I'll have to look at these tomorrow (But I love Weird Al's. I watch that one often). I have to admit, I'm bad about watching videos. I can listen to music all day but I get impatient and squirmy with the videos.

I do have two I really liked from last year.

Shatter Me by Lindsey Sterling and Lzzy Hale. I love Sterling's work (she has a ton of fun/geeky videos with Pentatonix and Peter Hollens)

I enjoy the steampunkish elements to this.

And speaking of steampunk, Abney Park's newest is very creative, a retelling of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

[a2zmom]

Not only did I like both of these but I had never heard of the artists, so big plus there. And yes, that Jekyll and Hyde take off was very clever indeed.

[cornerofmadness]

Oh good. They're both a lot of fun.

Lindsey was on one of those reality things I think, she dances with her violin which is impressive enough. She does a lot of covers and geek stuff. This is from an album of original material and it's been on the radio here a lot surprisingly enough.

Abney Park is one of the oldest and most popular steampunk bands. They have a ton of songs, most I really like. I'll be sharing both more as I do my music posts.

There's a big steampunk symposium in April in Cincinnatti and I'm not sure I can go (Might be finals week) and I'm not looking to see if they're there because I'll be SO disappointed

[rachg82]

I like all your picks, and I love your post ideas. You make me want to steal all of them, haha. Now I want to do a post of all my favorite videos. Maybe sometime later. Hope you don't mind being my post muse.

I'm not great at keeping up with new music anymore or new videos -- I tend to run a year or two behind. But I watched all of Beyonce's new videos this year when they ran on FUSE and loved all of them. I keep forgetting to buy the CD. So catchy. Now I have "flawless" stuck in my head, ha.

[a2zmom]

I keep up with new music via four sources:

my kids, especially Aaron. Although he has a fondness for durge metal which I hate, he has turned me onto some great stuff. (Girl Talk, for one.)

My friend list right here

Stuff I hear on YV

and most importantly, the Village Voice Pazz and Jop year end list. I figure the top 50 vote getters from a poll that 600 critics participated in is worth a listen.

[rachg82]

What's YV?

My friend list is dead. There's like one post every couple days, and never any music except for you. Very sad.

[a2zmom]

YV is me being a crappy typist.

I meant TV.

[cornerofmadness]

The young dancer in the Sia video is outstanding, simply amazing and unnerving, especially in the nude body suit. Her chaotic, occasionally robotic moves fit someone puppeting themselves through one more day sober or otherwise. Her facial expressions were spot on too.

The same could be said for the two young dancers in Never Catch Me. I think you have it right, it's ecstasy and in many of the Christian demoninations (though not all) the idea of immediately passing into the next phase should be one of ecstasy. The hardship of life is over and you are going to a place of unending joy. The idea of dancing enthusiastically into heaven is an appealing one.

[a2zmom]

I was going to recommend these two as the videos you'd most likely like! Ha, I guess I know your taste.

I have fallen in love with that song by Sia, as painful and nakedly raw as it is.

[cornerofmadness]

hahah you'd have guessed right (well these and Tacky)

it's a pretty amazing song