Top 25 Music Videos of 2019 (That Aren't "Old Town Road")

Sorry, I just think you've probably heard enough about that song and video for one year. Here are twenty five others that deserve your ears' attention.

#25: Weyes Blood – "Movies" (dir. Natalie Mering)

There's probably some psychological reason that this video creeps me out — maybe something about us desperately trying to get to the bottom of something and never really figuring out why it is the case. Wherever these people mysteriously splash into, they're happy, they disappear, and they're gone forever. The music video for "Everyday", another of Mering's songs this year, parodies classic slasher flicks, but quite funnily, this is the one that actually sends a chill through my bones instead.


#24: Dom Dolla – "Take It" (dir. Ross McDowell)

All I can wonder is how fun it must've been to film this behind the scenes.


#23: SWIDT – “Bunga” (dir. Anahera Parata)

My optimism excites me with the idea that SWIDT are soon to ramp up their ambitions with even fiercer and important conscious hip-hop in the turbulent cultural context of New Zealand. I can only hope — this standalone video gives me hope. My heart thumped nearly out of my body when I heard the lyric "Our only meetings are court proceedings, they only love us if it’s sports achievements, then we’re kiwis".


#22: Caroline Polachek – “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings” (dir. Polachek & Matt Copson)

Caroline Polachek said 'forget it, I'm dancing in hell for three minutes'.


#21: Little Big – "Rock Paper Scissors" (dir. Alina Pasok, Iliya Prusikin)

The Bloodhound Gang are back and care a lot less now, at least according to raving Russians Little Big, whose music video last year for "Skibidi" started a bit of a dance craze over there. Let's hope this one doesn't cause a riot of wild Scooby snack-snorting dogs to rise up, or heaven forbid, maybe that's just what the hell we need.


#20: Rico Nasty – “Roof” (dir. Cody Dobie)

Rico Nasty's abrasive, comical persona as a science-fiction film. She tears holes through the screen, taunts in front of scenery that'll glitch out behind her on command, taunts behind the horizon like some overseeing deity... it is so brazenly cool. Would like to point out 1:47 though, where Rico appears to be wearing a slick dress, before the camera zooms out and reveals it's just a giant, icy mountain in front of you. How good?!


#19: Stormzy – “Vossi Bop” (dir. Henry Scholfield)

Unbelievably smooth. I'd like to think this is already a favourite of many peoples' already, and I'm not here to be miserable and disagree. There's so much action on screen that snugly fits into the right places at the right times like a kinetic jigsaw puzzle.


#18: Lightning Bolt – “Blow to the Head” (dir. Caleb Wood)

Fluid eye-candy. Dynamite visuals for a dynamite opening track to a dynamite album by a dynamite band.


#17: ROSALÍA – “Aute Cuture” (dir. Dir. Bradley & Pablo)

No doubt this gets the year's award for best costuming. It excited me to know that we were only going to get more fiery singles from ROSALÍA this year, mainly because it meant we'd get more fiery music videos to go with them too. And this isn't even the one where she puts on her best Joe Pesci-esque accent and exclaims "fokin' money man!" on the chorus.


#16: Flying Lotus – “More” (dir. Shinichiro Watanabe)

Given Flylo's involvement and infatuation with the grotesque (see: his body horror film Kuso (2017) and commissioning of animator David Firth to take charge of the rather infamous music video for "Ready Err Not"), it's no surprise that the seriously vibrant and pretty-looking space exploration animation video for the equally serene song "More" takes a bit of a grim turn near the end. But the thing is that it still looks gorgeous! Ew...?


#15: Blanck Mass – “Love Is a Parasite” (dir. Craig Murray)

The music video for "Love Is a Parasite" features the same certified Blanck Mass green apples seen on the cover artwork for their latest album, Animated Violence Mild. Given the satirical consumerist themes of the record, the deliciously bizarre, gross twist in the middle of this video should come as no real shock, but it also gives you a good idea as to why Blanck Mass isn't selling the apples as merch.


#14: Buscabulla – "Vámono" (dir. Claudia Calderón Pacheco)

I'm a sucker for any heartwarming music video with a sense of cultural community — it represents a together-ness in the face of any hardship, even if the hardship isn't necessarily detailed in the video itself. This is Puerto Rican duo Buscabulla's high-spirited enactment of the 19th-century festival 'Festival de las Máscaras', and with such a determined-sounding song accopmanying it, it feels special and homely.


#13: ScHoolboy Q – “Numb Numb Juice” (dir. Dave Free & Jack Begert)

If only you'd seen the hysterics I was in when seeing the Elon Musk & Joe Rogan re-enactment twenty seconds into this music video — the entire thing is a barrel of laughs, but that alone could've made it.


#12: Deichkind – “Keine Party” (dir. Timo Schierhorn & UWE)

This tribute to a legendary Kap Bambino video from 2008 is probably a testament more to the original and how simple yet infectious it was that it makes people want to re-enact it themselves. Still, this edition is stupidly fun, even when bringing it into the middle of goddamn traffic, but somebody had to do it. Poor motorcycle, though.


#11: Tove Lo – “Glad He’s Gone” (dir. Vania Heymann & Gal Muggia)

The high budget for this video was probably worth it. Every extravagant scene is used for the sake of a dumb and genuinely hilarious joke that's actually over around two minutes into the video. It arrives so fast and nonchalantly moves on like nothing happened.


#10: Lana Del Rey – “Doin’ Time” (dir. Rich Lee)

If you're sassy enough to make a Sublime song decent, you're definitely also sassy enough to walk giant through the city of Long Beach and step out a few motherfuckers for your clone in another timeline.


#9: Oh Sees – “Gholü” (dir. Leo Nicholson)
(NSFW)

Recommended watching during lunchtime.


#8: Weval – “Someday” (dir. Páraic McGloughlin)

A spectacular (even if dizzying) way to make architecture seem so gloriously alive!


#7: Dababy – “Suge (Yea Yea)” (dir. X Reel Goats)

During his incredible come-up year, Dababy's had no shortage of funny music videos to show for his attention to theatrics and making sure you have a blast watching him take comical swings (unless you're Cam Coldheart stepping him out in a mall). "Walker Texas Ranger" being my introduction to him in January makes me nearly wish I chose that one instead. But there's no denying it — the video for "Suge" had me cracking up the most. Maybe it's the muscle suit.
It's not the funniest video of the year, though. That might actually be...


#6: Zack Fox & Kenny Beats – “Square Up” (dir. Reggie)

These two are secretly the duo of the year. It's easy to argue that since it was followed by an accidental viral (and pants-less) hit, an utter meltdown of a Genius interview and hijacking the stage at Hardfest, "Square Up" miraculously isn't even the funniest they were involved with in 2019.


#5: Anna Meredith – “Paramour” (dir. Ewan Jones Morris)

A very literal video, as in, what you see is what you get. Seeing this again, I'd like to think that I was somewhere near the bullseye in my review by comparing Meredith's album FIBS this year to a toy box awakening to life — it's that playful. I also reckon it must've been a right backside pain to clean up.


#4: Fat White Family – “Tastes Good With the Money” (dir. Róisín Murphy)

Well, I kinda lied. This was probably the funniest music video of the year, if not tied with "Square Up" and "Suge" already. It is so on-brand for the notoriously repulsive Fat White Family that all I could yell was "oh, perfect!". The scene is almost tastelessly Aristocratic, which is perfect for their anti-upper-class-Britain mission statement as tidy, up-market outfits get splashed with an intense amount of absurd blood-spray. That it was directed by Róisín Murphy also makes me wonder: is there seriously anything she can't do?


#3: Slowthai – “Nothing Great About Britain” (dir. The Rest)

I couldn't think of a manifesto more perfect for Slowthai, one of the year's most exciting breakout stars and probably one whose spit tastes really good, too. "I'll squeeze your neck until you pop", he says as he mocks the nationwide idols of British pop culture, a pricking statement against nationalism and the one-dimensional 'country pride' iconography that distracts from its true injustices. Though I'd argue that the most telling scene unfolds after he of all people is the one to un-sheath the King Arthur's sword, later knighting a line of hooded street figures. It establishes that his sympathy lies with everyday working class folk — they are those truly with the excalibur; the "rightful sovereignty to Britain". It also helps that he's wearing a shirt with Theresa May's eyes crossed out.


#2: FKA Twigs – "Cellophane" (dir. Andrew Thomas Huang)

Well, duh...? Was this ever not gonna be on here?


#1: PUP – “Kids” (dir. Jeremy Schaulin-Roux)

I don't give a fuck. I teared up to this when I first saw it. It's weirdly Black Mirror-esque, not just in its disoriented, even clinical embrace of 'futuristic' technology, but in its twisted narrative that dashes your hopes and then pulls the rug out from underneath them, revealing a large, bleak pit. For a song where lead vocalist Stephen Babcock admits that quite literally nothing is going right, this is the perfect visual accompaniment.


Stay tuned in a week or so's time for the round-up of best and worst albums, EPs and songs of 2019! To see previous Top 5s, check out this RYM list.


Honourable mentions:
Yung Lean – "Blue Plastic" (dir. Suzie & Leo)
Floating Points – "Last Bloom" (dir. Hamill Industries)

10 Albums From 2019 Unlike Anything Else I've Heard

I maintain that the breadth of music right now is the reason it is the most exciting time to be enthusiastic about it. Over the course of the past few years it's become increasingly clear that independent artists have been given greater and freer opportunities to craft their own unique vision, and it's no coincidence that this crests with the rise in acclaim and popularity of the queer underground that continues to show their ambition to push past pre-existing expectations of what shape music can take. Of course, that is just an exemplar snapshot of the flourishing musical landscape right now (a damn huge one, mind you), but gosh, it's still exciting to think about. Before sailing into the next decade, it's worth quickly shining a light on some music in 2019 that draws stylistic parallels with few others, at least not obviously. I struggle to tell if I've heard anything quite like these ten records.

I'd like to think that I can be forgiven for posting this a month early — it gives you an early chance to find out whether you've missed something before putting together your own snazzy 2019 lists!

1. Jennifer Walshe – All the Many Peopls

(Migro)

Spoken Word / Sound Collage / Electroacoustic

Taunting you for even attempting to make sense of it, hearing anybody be this unbound on a microphone with electro-acoustic screeching behind her isn't an everyday spectacle. All the Many Peopls is a satire of absolutely everything that comes to mind in this hodge-podge of 21st century, Internet-age absurdity and turmoil, as Walshe theatrically whimpers and screams and rambles about absolutely anything, hard-switching from one topic to the next. You might think it's a load of crap, you might think it's genius, but it is entertaining, for sure. 

Review

2. Katie Dey – Solipsisters

(Run For Cover)

Hypnagogic Pop / Glitch Pop

Katie Dey herself wishes to ignore restriction in what shape she can take and the music, though fluid from track to track,  really sounds like her heart is beating out of her chest from excitement. This is her most personal record to date, so elaborately honest about dysphoria and isolation to the point where she sounds as if she is reaching out to connect with you. The first time I listened to Solipsisters, it tugged downwards on my heart like a child that accidentally let go of a birthday balloon. The almost-aquatic ambience of the album starts making sense once the track “Dissolving” seeps in, as if to take a deep dive through liquid psyche. The album sounds gorgeous from the get-go, drums crack like your ears at the end of a flight, synthesiser melodies sway side to side like buoys on stormy water. An audiovisual experience about being more than our physical bodies, with music better described in images than it is in “synonym” Google results.

Review

3. Sadaf – History of Heat

(Blueberry)

Post-Industrial / Glitch / Iranian Folk Music / Sound Collage

A psychological unraveling of love-struck anxiety. This stands as a near-perfect demonstration of how to program an album that sounds as if it is slowly piecing itself together as quickly as it is falling apart, sculpted with nonsensical sounds that all make sense in tandem. At no point does it sound like a pastiche of something else. The entire album sounds like an uneven revving of tension that only burdens the narrator until she can no longer take it on the shocking midpoint of the album, “Ditectrice”. It isn't some random jumpscare in the middle, it functions as a reset button that wipes all the tension clean, scattering all the pieces of the record everywhere to be rebuilt again like a game of Buckaroo.

Review

4. Lilien Rosarian – A Day In Bel Bruit

(Self-Released)

Ambient / Folktronica / Radio Broadcast Recordings 

A Day In Bel Bruit sounds like the spirit-kindling of an abandoned community. It is overwhelming and surprisingly anxious for how calm it remains, like several different memories colliding and spilling out; an escape to a new place and the details of it are built upon the many radio transmissions that are chopped-up, washing into each other over the course of these tracks. Glistening, really waiting to be heard, and the closing track's sentiment of loss really tears at the heartstrings.

5. Bent Knee – You Know What They Mean

(InsideOut)

Art Rock

Bent Knee are the unsung heroes of rock music right now, a band that pay tribute to the progressive and theatrical forerunners before them but clearly operate in their own crazy lane. This is their best record so far, punching heavy but never forgetting to have fun, as "Cradle of Rocks" sounds like the hectic soundtrack for the ceiling of a disco party collapsing while the intimate balladry of "Bird Song" finds Courtney Swain's voice rippling back over itself multiple times towards the end like the constant relapsing of a specific memory. I think Bent Knee are incredible 'painters' if not just excellent musicians in tandem, managing to make their music sound larger than life in non-cliché ways.

6. Body Meat – Truck Music

(Self-Released)

Glitch Pop / Alternative R&B

“Deconstructed” is the word for the decade, as musical styles get stripped down and re-sculpted to present much more abstract and nuanced ideas. It’s hard to even begin to describe what Body Meat is influenced by, as every next minute it seems a track is shifting to a new phase, which gives Truck Music a lot of strength for something so short-breathed. Frantic as it is, it is a musical fusion that grows more beautiful with every next off-kilter and sour detail you become accustomed to—like a magic eye puzzle, you discover more and more. Sam Hockley-Smith hilariously described it as a record that "proves everything can fit if you don’t give it enough time to sound wrong". Apt.

Review

7. Léonore Boulanger – Practice Chanter

(Le Saule)

Free Folk / Avant-Folk / Sound Poetry / Electroacoustic

Léonore Boulanger’s concept here is to play with vowel and consonant sounds and not the words themselves — language errors are amok, she switches languages on several tracks and most of what you hear being sung is derived from vocal warm-up exercises. As a result, the album comes off as a pile of nonsense but it’s refreshing, especially as each track seems to have no real limits on what textures to group together to create a stimulating electro-acoustic chamber folk sound poetry hullabaloo. It’s therapeutic, too, every little click and crank and discordant melody feels so clear in the song and not buried by all its counterparts, it’s like a box of toys coming to life and scrambling to get out.

Review

8. Fet.Nat – Le mal 

(Boiled)

Afrobeat / Electronic / Experimental Rock

Fet.Nat are a band like no other, inspired clearly by the Rock In Opposition movement, which is going to guarantee yourself some idiosyncrasy if your other big influence to draw from is afro-beat. The four-piece have snark, and their 2017 EP Gaoler begins with a track "Trust Cops" that sounds un-sturdy and ugly, with the headiness of a protest, giving you the impression of satire. It's clever, and Le mal is an album that pulls no punches. The rigid drum groove on opening track “Tapis” is interjected by atonal quacking, the squawking akin to roostering bird noises and tampered recordings of people rambling in French. Does it make sense? No, and that’s the best part. It’s body music in a new fashioned sense, make whatever primal movements you want and start chanting along with the mantras on “Patio Monday” if you want.

Review

9. Ifriqiyya Electrique – Laylet el Booree

(Glitterbeat)

North African Music / Industrial Rock

Ifriqiyya Électrique are a unique collective. They are formed by two travellers whose trip to Tunisia provided them both a juvenating spiritual awakening and new connections to North African musicians who shared the same ambitions that they did, eventually spawning their debut Rûwâhîne in 2017 that merges the seemingly unlikely worlds of North African traditionals with noisy, clattering industrial rock. Their vibratos enchant the air while the ground underneath is abrasive and menacing, yet intoxicating from the power of rhythm alone. Laylet el Booree is laser-focused in comparison to their debut — less hopping down branches of a stylistic mind-map or adventurous narrative, and more for finding the few cool things they want to do and sticking to them for the entirety of the album. Thankfully these ‘things’ are bloody good. Deep inside I feel this urge for a cathartic release. It feels like freedom! It feels like unlikely worlds have merged and gates have been opened! How something can make you wanna swing your hips side to side and take shelter for the upcoming world war is something I cannot fathom, but there’s even a sense of solidarity in this music too. Non-Western musical fusion is magical and makes you wish you paid more attention. 

Review

10. Powerless Electronics – All Good Things Come In Threes

(Speak & Spell)

Bit Music, Death Industrial, Glitch

If the genre of power electronics is supposed to be repulsive, harsh, disturbing, violent... then what would powerless electronics sound like?

I described Powerless Electronics' (formed of duo G and Q) music earlier in the year as the sounds of breaking through the physical make-up of the world. This was in response to their self-titled debut (Powerless Electronics), but I think their follow-up here manages to expand in this in ways that push the minimal abstractions to their limit, truly. The strongest asset is that despite the harsh sonic palette, the composition resembles familiar styles — the second track sounds like the equivalent of a big brass band performing a free jazz piece, and the ostinato on track three is a hooky loop that whimsically floats up, up, up and then down, down down, disorienting you by breaking musical rules that you expect to be followed. It keeps you guessing with these discordant melodies that follow a rhythmic pattern but refuse to meet you halfway.

Review

There's surely a lot more, but these are the ten that I've chosen to shine a spotlight on for now. Until then, see you next time!