Video Rewind Best of 2015 Volume III

10. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Eric Nally, Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, and Grandmaster Caz “Downtown”
Part of what impresses me about this song is all the people that were brought together to record it. Part of what impresses me about this video is all these people coming together to shoot it. Macklemore is the driving force behind this video. Yet, we still get plenty of cameos from Ryan Lewis, Eric Nally, Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, and Grandmaster Caz. “Downtown” the video features some of the sweetes rides you’ll ever see, whether they be motorcycles or moped. It also has some great choreography that is worked in around Macklemore’s limited abilities. What it actually accomplishes is making Spokane, Washington look like a place you want to go visit. I mean, I know the contents of this video aren’t happening everyday, or ever for that matter. It just seems like they didn’t have to go too far to find the colorful people featured in it. I mean, what is life without fun?

.09 Black Taxi “Take Off the Edge”

Black Taxi – "Take Off the Edge" from Carlos Lopez Estrada on Vimeo.

Black Taxi’s video for “Take Off the Edge” is just amazing. Using live action and some animation to boot, we get the scene of a dinner date. Things move along rather quickly as we go from dancing, to swordfight, to dinner, to sex. And if the course of events weren’t stranged enough, the couch from the beginning of the video is where the couple copulates, only to be swallowed like some ghosts consumed by a ghost trap from Ghostbusters. We end the video hearing a baby crying, and would you know it, there’s a baby crawling out from between the cushions. The song is about taking a chance, and the video certainly shows how good albeit goofy things can be if you do.

.08 Flying Lotus “Coronus, The Terminator”

When the video for “Coronus, The Terminator” by Flying Lotus begins, we see a scene of a man dying in his home. His family is gathered around him, and they lay their hands on him to pray. An adolescent boy who only has one arm is reluctant to join in, and stares across the room. As the man passes, he is seen walking through his house only to find three white spirits in his living room. This is where he tries to run from death, represented by his entry onto a bus. Who should he find in the back of the bus but the boy. He follows the boy off the bus down to an underpass. Here he looks around trying to figure out where he is. All the time, the spirits are in tow. They come to water, and now the man finds himself on his knees with the boy behind him. An automatic gun is drawn and shots are fired. Rose petals fall in the place of blood, and somehow we learn that the boy is responsible for the man’s death. He hasn’t shot him, but he is the reason. Now we understand why he was reluctant to place his one hand on the man and pray. The spirits are done well with nothing but white powder covering them, and the dancers come off eerily enough without seeming frightening. It just goes to show that a little can go a long way in terms of effects.

.07 Disclosure featuring Lorde “Magnets”

The thing about magnets is that oppossite sides attract. Nothing could be more true for the video “Magnets” by Discolsure featuring Lorde. As the song lyrics state, Lorde likes a guy and she’s wondering if the girl with him is his girlfriend. The video follows the same story, only rather than stealing the man she winds up uniting with the other woman. This isn’t just torture, but rather murder. The man finds himself tied to a chair, pushed into a pool, and the surface lit on fire. Sure, it’s Lorde doing all the dirty work, but the other brunette is standing by in a similar black leather outfit just watching. Recognize the pool? Yeah, it’s the same location the video begins only this time Lorde isn’t alone in a white dress about to get involved in this whole wonderful scenario where people are attracted and repelled by forces they feel they don’t control. It’s a different side of Lorde than any other we’ve seen in music videos. She’s played the strong, outsider type woman before. But this time she’s actually seen destroying a man. Because, if you didn’t know, where there’s a magnetic field there’s an electric field. Beware the electricity.

.06 Karmin “Didn’t Know You”

Karmin’s move to break away from their label was a bold one that mean changes. One thing that it hasn’t meant was a decline in their music, or the quality of their videos. “Didn’t Know You” is a song about betrayal and how it can muck everything up. We go old West style for this one. Two women are wanted, and a bounty hunter has found them right as they’re about to have a duel. Amy Heidemann plays the bandita who is betrayed, as she is handed a rifle without bullets. Naturally, she winds up shot. The other woman is picked off from long rage by the bounty hunter. When he comes down to collect his prizes, he turns his back on Amy who draws a small concealed pistol and shoots him in the back. It’s a diferent story from Karmin, and it’s not shot in the vibrant colors of their other videos. Still, you have to admit they know very well how to make serious songs entertaining.

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