The Key’s Year-End Mania: Kate Bracaglia’s Top 5 Music Videos of 2012
For The Key’s year-in-review, we asked our trusted sources – our writers and photographers, XPN’s on-air staff, fellow bloggers in the Philly scene and even a few musicians – to send us their Top Five Whatevers. Could be the traditional music route – albums, songs, concerts of the year – or it could be only loosely connected. We’ll be sharing these recaps every day through to the end of the year. Contributing writer Kate Bracaglia opted to weigh in on the visualized music we saw in 2012.
Music videos: they’re so much fun, and sometimes they contain biting social commentary too. This year there were so many amazing vids that making this list was hard—and so quick shout-outs to Passion Pit, “Take a Walk” (filmed in Philly!), Jaill, “Perfect Ten” (colored slime, GG Allin antics), Hot Panda, “Future Markets” (weird masks/futurism), Nicky Romero, “Toulouse” (MORE weird masks, creepy dancing), and The Very Best, “Kondaine” (men visit Kenyan medicine man, get turned into goats), which were so close to making the cut. But in the end there can only be five.
5. A Place to Bury Strangers, “So Far Away”
A Place to Bury Strangers “So Far Away” from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.
Basically everyone I know is obsessed with Instagram, and this vid takes the world’s 1,000,000 cloud pics + compiles them into something greater than the sum of its parts. This must have taken so long to put together, but was totally worth it, since it rules so hard.
4. Fanfarlo, “Shiny Things”
What happens when art succumbs to greed? Fanfarlo explore one take in this mesmerizing vid, which also features some excellent ribbon-dancing.
3. King Tuff, “Alone & Stoned”
I loved this song before I saw the video, and the video made me love it even more. These people are all so weird and hilarious, yet somehow perfectly epitomize almost all of my friends.
2. Said the Whale, “We Are 1980”
Imagine that George Orwell named his famous dystopian novel 1980 instead, then watch this video.
1. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, “Thrift Store”
I don’t like this quite as much as my top pick last year…but I still like this a lot a lot a lot. There’s so much hilarity here it’s hard to pick fave moments: so let’s just say, damn can Macklemore work the footie pajamas. I think the thrift stores in his hometown Seattle must be better than in Philly though—my guy friends are always complaining about the limited men’s section over at The Second Mile.