When real life gets weird, art gets surreal. From the Rapunzel-inspired fantasia of Chappell Roan’s “The Subway,” to the bucolic dreamscape of Rosalía’s “Berghain,” to the trippy erotica of FKA twigs’s “Striptease,” the best videos of the year blurred the lines between reality and fantasy. Elsewhere, Perfume Genius unpacked childhood trauma and mental struggles via an apocalyptic phantasm in his self-reflective clip for “It’s a Mirror.”
Two of the videos on our list, Charli XCX’s “Party for U” and Daft Punk’s “Contact,” feature songs that were originally released years ago. The latter, in fact, is over a decade old. These new visual interpretations not only speak to the timelessness of the songs themselves, but—especially in the case of Charli’s belated hit—to the way in which the democratization of music consumption has changed the way songs (and videos) are released and marketed.
What hasn’t changed is the power of the medium to enhance, reinterpret, or even wholly alter the meaning of a song. And the 10 extraordinary videos below are a testament to that fact. Sal Cinquemani
10. Charli XCX featuring John Cale, “House” (Director: Mitch Ryan)
The video for Charli XCX and John Cale’s “House,” from the former’s soundtrack to the forthcoming film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, is equally as ominous as the song itself. The clip, which finds the artists roaming a dimly lit house and the surrounding woods, strikingly match cuts Charli’s dark waves with the glistening hide and black mane of a horse and the wings of a vulture, which is tethered to a bed. “I think I’m gonna die in this house,” Cale and Charli repeat with increasing intensity, as he holds her head down on a table. Cinquemani
9. Perfume Genius, “It’s a Mirror” (Director: Cody Critcheloe)
The video for Perfume Genius’s “It’s a Mirror” takes manifestations of emotional dysregulation—ennui, mood swings, risky behaviors—and dials them up to aberrant extremes. Depression presents as a paralytic catatonia, with Mike Hadreas lying in bed as his body is moved and manipulated. The rest of the clip plays out as a twisted, dreamlike biker epic, suggesting Lana Del Rey’s “Ride” video as directed by Harmony Korine. Hadreas, sporting a leather jacket, a cropped halter top, and heels, throws himself back over the handlebars of a motorcycle and guzzles gasoline straight from the nozzle, embodying an erratic, fluid vision of American masculinity. Eric Mason
8. ARTMS, “Icarus” (Directors: Moon Seokho and Seong Wonmo)
The 14-minute short film for ARTMS’s “Icarus” is a fusion of ancient myth, crime drama, and techno-fantasy. At the midpoint is a jaw-dropping sequence during which our heroine finds herself in a void of static that flows like sand dunes, where human figures made of light rise and circle her, personifying interpersonal solidarity and connection that transcend distance and death. Flanking this interlude is a hand-illustrated prologue about a quest for revenge, a gritty depiction of an outpouring of support after the disappearance of a young woman, and an impassioned dance sequence, all strikingly rendered and tied together by themes of resilience and revival. Mason
7. Daft Punk, “Contact” (Directors: Epic Games and Magnupus)
Created in collaboration with Epic Games and Magnopus, the video for Daft Punk’s “Contact,” which samples audio from NASA’s Apollo 17 mission, follows Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo on a kaleidoscopic voyage through space. The gravitational pull of a flashing diamond draws them in, and as they cross the event horizon of the mysterious object, their lives—including images from Daft Punk’s iconic videography—flash before their (and our) eyes. Cinquemani
6. Doechii, “Denial Is a River” (Directors: Carlos Acosta and James Mackel)
Inspired by the surreal comedy horror short Too Many Cooks, the video for Doechii’s “Denial Is a River” may seem familiar, but there are moments of genuine (and original) hilarity that give way to emotional gravitas. First, the levity: Doechii passionately gesticulating with a knife in her hand, recalling Tiffany Pollard on Flavor of Love, and a crowd of kooky music industry players rampaging through the rapper’s house. As the song gets to the heart of Doechii’s history of addiction, the fourth wall literally breaks down, leaving her to wade through the wreckage of her past. Mason
5. Chappell Roan, “The Subway” (Director: Amber Grace Johnson)
Nestled within the lyrics to Chappell Roan’s “The Subway” are tributes to both sense memory and the city of New York, and the video sees the singer partaking in such NYC pastimes as taking a dip in Washington Square Fountain and falling asleep on the subway. The clip mixes the realism of living (and loving) in the Big Apple with surreal bits like a red tumbleweave rolling down a crowded sidewalk and Roan climbing a giant green wig. Cinquemani
4. Rosalía featuring Björk and Yves Tumor, “Berghain” (Director: Nicolás Méndez)
The video for Rosalía’s “Berghain” sees the singer opening her drapes as an orchestra materializes behind her, filling the room with noise and movement. Her lack of a reaction as she carries on with ironing a sheet, getting an EKG, and riding the bus suggests that she’s accustomed to having grandiose musical gestures swirling in her head. Later, Rosalía plays Snow White to Björk’s friendly songbird before Yves Tumor’s outro ushers in a nightmare of distorted woodland creatures. Like a Renaissance painting, each object and animal that flashes on screen carries symbolic weight, but the increasingly bewildered Rosalía is, as ever, the most compelling. Mason
3. FKA twigs, “Striptease” (Director: Jordan Hemmingway)
The video for “Striptease” sees FKA twigs running through a traffic tunnel in Marseille, France, as cars speed by on either side of her. The clip, directed by frequent collaborator Jordan Hemmingway, alternates seamlessly yet abruptly between magical realist flourishes, like twigs floating in the air as if suspended in water, and moments that feel much more gritty, grounded, and tactile. Comparisons to Unkle’s “Rabbit in Your Headlights” are inevitable, especially when twigs is nearly mowed down by a truck—except here, as in the song, the reclamation of her power isn’t merely bodily but metaphysical. Cinquemani
2. Charli XCX, “Party 4 U” (Director: Mitch Ryan)
If you’ve ever thrown a party for the object of your obsession, hired their favorite DJ, invited all of their friends from out of town, filled the house with 1,000 pink balloons, and they didn’t bother to show up or even text, you might strip off all of your clothes and light yourself—or at least a giant billboard emblazoned with your likeness—on fire too. Cinquemani
1. Clipse featuring Kendrick Lamar, “Chains & Whips” (Director: Gabriel Moses)
The surreal stretching and warping of faces and bodies in Clipse’s “Chains & Whips” video mirrors the reverberations of the carceral system and economic oppression in the lives of Black Americans. Throughout, mundane scenes like an inmate doing pushups and a gambler at a slot machine are interspersed with intimate close-ups of faces expressing grief and funhouse-mirror distortions of babies, cops, and the rappers themselves. Gradually, even all-too-common images of arrest and incarceration appear just as alien. Mason
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