It used to be you stayed up watching music videos entrancing an ever more-dreamlike mind until the color bars sent you to bed. The color bars are gone, but the music videos remain. Let’s see the best of the week!

 

5. Drop the Gun — “Deeper”

We’re going to be bringing you some extremely sexy stuff this week, starting with “Deeper,” directed by Tobias Wilner. It’s a simple enough video, alternating footage of singer Sara Savery (how’s that for a name?) being embraced and caressed by a muscular man and her writhing on the bed. Sounds plain, I know, but Savery is a mistress of body motion, able to tell a story with the movements of her body that is almost painfully erotic. Supplement that with some subtle, but effective graphic effects by Jesper Bolther, and the effect is utterly hypnotic.

 

4. Mise en Scene — “Closer”

Full warning, this one is not really safe for work. “Closer,” directed by Lloyd Lee Choi and partially presented by Playboy, is basically a Vincent Gallo film in miniature. It follows a man (Emmanuel Odaibo) that serves as a driver and assistant for a guy that makes porn videos in the back of his fan. The man forms and attachment with the latest girl (Hadley Winn), who proceeds to work her way through a succession of partners for money as she steadily grows more and more numb. Eventually, the two share some tender moments in a nightclub until a barfight drives them fleeing into the night, after which they have a tender kiss. She’s gone the next day, replaced by the next girl for production.

It’s a compelling short, if dirty and slightly exploitative. Which I gather is kind of the point. If you haven’t seen anything that made you want to take a share and re-evaluate your life recently, give it a whirl.

 

3. Kassa Overall — “Mac and Cheese”

I’m mostly sharing this to celebrate experimentation in music videos, though I personally can’t grok this one fully with my current equipment. Director Jordan Fish brings us a fully 3D music video, meant to be experienced through VR headsets. So if anyone out there has an Oculus, let me know in the comments how awesome this was!

 

2. Terence Ryan — “Mean It”

I have a soft spot for the one-take music video and “Mean It” is one of the best ones I have ever seen. Ryan plays a menial worker searching for something more in his life through his soliloquy, even as he goes about his soul-crushing job. Ryan brings an impressive pathos to the performance that makes me think he might make the transition to actor in the future. Until then, watch this.

 

1. Muse — “Dig Down”

You can pretty much always count on Muse to deliver a good music video, and boy do they not disappoint in “Dig Down.” A cybernetic warrior who has to reconstruct her broken leg drags herself into one last combat with an army and through a Matrix-like mainframe. Think of it like Planet Terror meets Beyond: Two Souls, and with a little Max Headroom thrown in just to be even more insane. I would totally watch the full-length feature film version of this video, but I will settle for this action masterpiece if that’s all I can get!