Welcome to FACT’s weekly video round-up.
As we note at the end of every year, music videos have never been better. But too often, music videos — along with documentaries, live sets and interview clips — get lost in the shuffle of news and new music.
With that in mind, FACT is doing what it does for mixes, mixtapes, vinyl and more: rounding up the internet’s best videos on a weekly basis. And to remove our bias, we won’t be including our own content — you’ll have to stay tuned to FACT TV for all your Against The Clock, FACT Freestyles and Confessions needs.
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Neon Indian
‘Slumlord Rising’
Dir: Tim Nackashi & Alan Palomo
Alan Palomo’s latest synth-pop jam scores this totally-80s short film. Set in a seedy, Miami Vice fantasy world, its Copacabana tracking shot follows gimp-walkers and gangbangers into a club before a bloody disco riot gives way to a heist and a cliffhanging conclusion.
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Hudson Mohawke
‘System’
Dir: Dominic Flannigan & Nic Hamilton
HudMo’s ‘System’ gets an epic video that suits the maximalist tune. The crew shot the Manhattan skyline and then brought it to a virtual world that lays its kaleidoscopic circuitry bare, with skyscrapers that pulse like pistons.
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Junglepussy
‘Dear Diary’
Dir: Erin Grant
In the video for her latest Pregnant with Success cut, Junglepussy lives lavishly, in gorgeously decorated apartments and on rooftop decks. As always, she’s better than your favorite rapper, makes it look easy, and has fun doing it.
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Air Max ’97
‘Core Work’
Dir: Mat Col
‘Core Work’ is a journey through a microscopic fractal universe, in all its immaculate detail. We see a lot of these digital landscapes but rarely are they as well suited and perfectly timed to the music.
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EMA
‘Active Shooter’
EMA makes her powerful, Obama-sampling anti-gun dirge ‘Active Shooter’ even more effective by using it to score footage from an active shooter drill, showing “fake” violence from a first person perspective and underscoring the increasingly-common horror of American life.
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D.R.A.M. feat. Donnie Trumpet
‘$’
Dir: Nathan R. Smith and D.R.A.M.
The rising rapper-singer looks back on his come-up, combining home video footage of performances at church and school with a narrative about how he still has a way to go.
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Adele
‘Hello’
Dir: Xavier Dolan
Adele returns in this sepia-toned video about cleaning out your closet and moving on with your life. Yes, that’s Tristan “Mack” Wilds (The Wire) in Adele’s heartbroken memories, but no, that’s not a TARDIS in the forest.
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Ty Dolla $ign feat. Babyface
‘Solid’
Dir: Jerome D.
Ty Dolla $ign is trying to be the Babyface of his generation, so he enlists him for the guitar-strumming ‘Solid’ video. When he’s not with the living legend, Ty skateboards and takes a model on a road trip — not bad work if you can get it.
Drake
‘Hotline Bling’
Dir: Director X
The biggest pop star in rap won the week with his video for ‘Hotline Bling’. In the same way that the song relies on a sample popularized by D.R.A.M., the striking, neon-lit sets seem inspired (to say the least) by the light installations of James Turrell. The corny dancing and bad acting is by design: Drake knows how to make himself a meme by making himself the butt of the joke, and the video is a clever series of GIF bait.
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Justin Bieber
‘Sorry’
Dir: Parris Goebel
Forget a boring lyric video: all pop singles should now debut with dance videos — especially if that means a Justin Bieber video without Justin Bieber in it.
