Image via Complex Original
The most creative music videos produced this month are so visually tantalizing, you'll want to touch them. Using explosions of color, varying textures, and impressive lighting, these videos take the form to the next level. Some use patterns and vibrant hues to draw viewers in while others, like JJ's "All White Everything," rely on the absence of color to create a narrative. From dark warehouses to the blazing desert sun, these videos traverse every landscape and atmosphere to dream up something entirely new.
In fact, across the board, dreamscapes play a big role in this month's videos. Many use surreal images, strange sequences, and eerie characters to suggest that you are watching someone's dream—or nightmare. There's also a strong theme of insanity running through this list. Both Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug and JJ's music videos portray insane asylums. With such a leap from the everyday, these videos keep us on edge. Check out the incredible work in the genre produced this month with The Most Creative Music Videos of June 2014.
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20syl, "Kodama"
Directors: Mathieu Le Dude and 20syl
The video for "Kodama" takes place on a plain wooden table, which is shot from above. The table is covered with old school music synthesizers, keyboards, and other random desk objects—a jar of candy, a cup of tea. Hands rotate on each of these objects, alternately playing music and fidgeting. The everyday scene turns surreal halfway through when the lights shut off and the table is filled with stranger things. It's a simple concept pulled off brilliantly.
The Hics, "All We'll Know"
Directors: Carnivore and SAINT
The Hics' music video for "All We'll Know" is all about texture. Shot mostly in the dark with spotlights, a cast of characters writhes underwater and moves beneath swaths of fabric. The folds, ripples, and splashes create a visually satisfying video even if we can't see much with the limited illumination. The point is to give us a hint of life while leaving us mostly in the dark.
JJ, "All White Everything"
Director: Olivia Kastebring
"All White Everything" is just what it sounds like. Using a mostly colorless palette, the video tells the story of patients in a pretty horrifying mental hospital. Their only signs of individuality, including colorful drawings, are torn from them by faceless guards. A strange beacon of hope rests in the sequined contortionist throughout the video.
Para One, "You Too"
Director: Samedi Soir
An awesome parody on '90s rave shows, Para One's video for "You Too" completely embraces the old school format. Instead of just making fun of a bad MTV special shot from inside a club—cameraman visible and all—Para One also shows how fun these shows actually were through the eyes of a young outsider. In the end, he gets his moment in the spotlight with an impressive ballet routine.
Hawk House, "Chill Pill (Experiment 2)"
Director: Thomas Rhazi
Surrealism meets film noir meets hip-hop in the new video from trio Hawk House. A simple stage, filled with odd set pieces that would feel at home in a Magritte painting, like an inverted, gravity-defying bunk bed, creates a strange world balanced by the video's symmetry. The video is filmed with the camera zooming in an out, adding another dimension to the otherwise sparse scenes.
Animalia, "Stifling"
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
You've never seen a face (or faces) like this before. Animalia's cheeks, eyes, and skin are stretched as if they were pressed against glass, except the unsettling magic of the video is that the glass has been removed. She also appears with other faces projected on her own, so she looks more like a mannequin than a living, singing human. We wouldn't expect any less from director Brandon Cronenberg, who also directed the horror film Antiviral.
Shamir, "Sometimes A Man"
Director: Anthony Sylvester
On paper, Shamir's video for "Sometimes A Man" is pretty simple, composed mostly of shots of him walking around his hometown, Las Vegas. But the video is filmed so the City of Sin warps, bends, and kaleidoscopes like a video game or trippy GIF. Then again, with a voice as unique as Shamir's, you could've just had him singing alone in a white room, and it would be something entirely different from what we've ever seen or heard.
Rich Homie Quan and Young Thug, "Get TF Out of My Face"
Director: Be EL Be
Instead of bling, rides, and honeys, this rap video is filled with scenes from an insane asylum. Young Thug is trapped in a straight jacket, and he yells at mirrors in a room filled with senseless scratches. The disturbing video gives a darker meaning to the title "Get TF Out of My Face." At the same time, an eroticized psychiatrist plays down the seriousness of the video.
Sevdaliza, "Sirens of the Caspian"
Director: Atlynn Vrolijk
The video for "Sirens of the Caspian" plays out like a dream sequence, complete with poisonous snakes, underwater scenes, and a long hallway filled with smoke. The video is filmed so the footage appears in layers like a double exposure photograph, adding to the sense that it takes place in the subconscious. It's also highly erotic, with nails running across skin and shots of Sevdaliza's tantalizing lips and gold teeth. Freud would have a field day with this one.
Lana Del Rey, "Shades of Cool"
Director: Jake Nava
Lana Del Rey just recently released her sophomore album, "Ultraviolence," produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. The album is something totally new to the moody singer-songwriter, with its bluesy rock influences, but still very much Lana's, with its old-Hollywood glitz and glam essence. "Shades of Cool" captures this evolution perfectly. Directed by Jake Nava, the film noir aesthetics pull us through a love affair with Del Rey and a handsome, older man. The video is loaded with heavy layering and saturated colors as she somberly croons "Can't make him better," and it has moments of lightness and grainy filming that depict her innocent hope amid the sadness.
Lydia Ainsworth, "Malachite"
Director: Matthew Lessner
The video for "Malachite" is creepy in the best way possible. Three very talented Asian dancers pull off a graceful and intensely difficult routine wearing exactly the same thing, which makes the whole video feel like a trip through a demented carnival funhouse. The changes in lighting along with the glowing gloves worn by the dancers make for a trippy, nightmarish atmosphere. We're not sure about that scary mime who looks like it escaped from an insane asylum, however.
How To Dress Well, "Face Again"
Director: Johannes Greve Muskat
The video for "Face Again" is the second part of a trilogy of films made with Luke Gilford and Johannes Geve Muskat. Continuing from "Repeat Pleasure," the story focuses on the hospice caregiver and son as they struggle with the death of the boy's elderly father. The dreary cinematography is depressing but beautiful. Tom Krell himself is a character, acting as a Jesus-like figure in the young couple's search for peace after death. He wears white linen and guides them gently in the right direction.
Lizzo, "Bus Passes and Happy Meals"
Director: Annette Navarro
Lizzo's new video was shot in a desert outside Las Vegas, but that doesn't mean it's lacking in color. The rapper's outfits are explosions of patterns, textures, sequins, and features that juxtapose vibrantly with the desert landscape. In addition, Lizzo relied on dancer Lil Buck to supply the incredible moves for the video. If that wasn't enough of a visual feast, there's also a baby tiger.
Ibeyi, "Oya"
Director: ScanLAB Projects
3D scanning is used more often in architectural projects than music videos, but Ibeyi's music video for "Oya" proves that even this unromantic, technical process can be beautiful. Relying on the help of ScanLAB Projects, Ibeyi's video shows ghostly 3D renderings of a black-and-white forest. The eerie landscape compliments Ibeyi's haunting vocals perfectly.
Blood Orange, "You're Not Good Enough"
Director: Gia Coppola
Blood Orange's song "You're Not Good Enough" sounds, looks, and feels so much like the '80s. The synth and funky baseline are as cheesy as the dance ensemble warehouse performance, but in the best way possible. Blood Orange sports an all-white outfit as he dances alongside the ensemble, completing the daytime television performance look.
Sir Michael Rocks, "Playstation 1.5"
Director: Roberto Mario
Sir Michael Rocks' newest music video "Play Station 1.5" sports a heavily digital and fringe fashion aesthetic. The eerie beat is complimented by images of bleak, rusty machinery and the off-putting location of an airplane hanger. The simple shots of Sir Michael rapping to the camera are distorted through colorful and technical filters that give the whole video the feeling of earlier technology and Internet quality.
Celestial Trax, "Verticals"
Director: Jayne Lies
"Verticals," directed by Jayne Lies, begins with a range of colors layering over a girl writhing on a mirror. The images repeat to the rhythm of the music as she continues to move, as if in a choppy, disoriented trance. This sequence is interlaced with images of a chrome Ferrari zipping through the neon lights of a nighttime tunnel. The repetition of silvers and glittering colors ties the piece together with an almost VHS effect.
Jack White, "Lazaretto"
Directors: Jonas and Francois
Every Jack White fan must see this music video if they haven't already. Directed by Jonas and Francois, the video features Jack in an intricate suit banging out bluesy guitar chords and pacing around the mic in a white room. The entire video is monochrome and works around the premise that there's a plane of glass between the screen and the viewer. If Jack spits, his mucus splashes onto the glass. If he throws a baseball, the glass shatters. Strange visuals, like white snakes and skulls, flash throughout the band and Jack's performance. The number three, Jack's sacred number, also sneaks its way into the video.
Nicki Minaj, "Pills N Potions"
Director: Diane Martel
It wouldn't truly be a list of the most creative music videos of June 2014 if we didn't find a spot for rapper Nicki Minaj. We can always expect the quirky, the extravagant, and the just downright weird from this rap queen, and she doesn't fail to awe us again with her new video for "Pills N Potions," off her upcoming third studio album The Pink Print. The video features bright background colors, and throughout, there are images of Nicki crying metallic tears, floating animations of pill bottles and PEZ dispensers, a twisted airplane, a melting house, and bunnies, bunnies, and more bunnies. Diane Martel, who also directed Pink's "Just Give Me a Reason," Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines," and Miley Cyrus's "We Can't Stop," led the creative charge in this new Nicki video, offering fans a softer side of the female rapper that's equally as quirky.
FKA Twigs, "Two Weeks"
Director: Nabil Elderkin
Director Nabil has worked with Frank Ocean, The Arctic Monkeys, Nicki Minaj, and other artists to create surreal, even trippy visuals. FKA Twigs has become known for her outlandish and artistic music videos, so her pairing with Nabil was no surprise. The video sweeps through a golden, pillared room featuring a goddess-like FKA Twigs singing seductively to the camera, while mini Twigs dance in the background (a chance to showcase her classical dance training.) At one point, she extends a finger and waters a mini Twig, playing on the line, "I'll quench your thirst." Nabil and FKA Twigs together take this video to the next level.