A few years ago I swore off stealing music using P2P client services. I’d call it pirating – you probably know it by that name – but it isn’t pirating. I’m not a fanatical “wordarian” or “gramarian” (or any kind of arian for that matter) – I won’t correct your grammar. That’s something assholes do, but I don’t like purposefully misusing words to clear my conscience either. Also, I never boarded anything in the pursuit of music for which I was not paying. So stealing it is and because I don’t like stealing, I pay for my music now. That being said, I’m terribly poor so I don’t buy music haphazardly. I spend a lot of my time listening to music on youtube. This immediately associates that block of time with music videos. The past few years have been good to music videos and some talented musicians and filmmakers have produced really excellent, watchable stories in the format. I wanted to celebrate 2010’s top 10 music videos in this post.
10 In the Sun I am more than a little smitten with Zooey Deschanel. She is just so winsome and delightful, like she’s made from confectioner’s sugar or keebler elves. I refer my affections to her status as the She in music power group She & Him. She & Him’s first album – Volume 1 – produced a single Marc Webb-directed video sport for lead off single “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” The video was kind of weird unless you’re the type of person who’s into in seeing a cowgirl vested Deschenel being stepped on by a scowling M.Ward (not that there’s anything wrong with that, or course). The videos (and songs, for that matter) from follow up album (Volume 2) were much better. #____ on our countdown is the lead off single from Volume 2, In the Sun.
The song is set in a high school with Deschanel and Ward playing disaffected lovers. Wait for her big hula-hoop scene, think about this scene from Elf and wonder if this is the same woman. Go on, I dare you.
I wonder why she doesn’t ever bring this kind of effervescence to any of her films. Without belaboring the meaning of its lyrics, I will simply say that In the Sun is a song about perception and, by extension, persistence through the crumbly-bumbly vicissitudes of life. This is the kind of love song I can get up and represent. It helps that M.Ward is such a talented musician.
9 Thieves
This video’s message is the antithesis of In the Sun’s, telling the (same) story which is held up by the other end of Love’s stick. The singer croons about “thieves” who paint the walls with lies and bemoans the sad fact that love is sometimes “terrible news.” Truer words have never been sung as dulcetly. The video is composed of a burgeoning and slow-developing homage to early filmmakers like Georges Melies and the Smashing Pumpkins circa 1993. Shutter cuts without revealing the full extension of action, suggesting scenes and images that never were. I thought the inclusion of 100 year old cinematic artifacts was delightful. Clouds made of cotton balls, chroma keyed nightscapes, and even a zepplin which soars over the heroine’s trackless pursuit of her lost love are cross cut with a bewhildered-looking and barely in focus Deschanel who actually looks like she belongs in those silent shorts. The video comes out looking like it was shot on a VHS camcorder and I love it. Its also a lovely song.
We Watch 