My Top 8 Animated Music Videos

You know what's awesome? Music videos. Music videos are AWESOME. I love watching VH1 when I wake up in the morning and yeah, a lot of the time the videos are pretty bad or boring or cliche, but sometimes you get really awesome and innovative videos that are essentially works of art (I'm looking at you, Björk). And you guys know me - I love cartoons. So when you combine awesome, innovative music videos with animation? I am SOLD. Here are my eight favorite animated music videos of all time.

8. Peter Bjorn & John - "Young Folks" - Okay, the animation in this video isn't particularly amazing, and it's not exactly plot-heavy, but I just love this video (and this song). It reminds me visually of classic comics like Ghost World and American Splendor, which I obviously LOVE because, y'know, comics. It reminds me of being in high school, too, in a nice, nostalgic way.

7. Fleet Foxes - "The Shrine/An Argument" - This video is so weird in such a cool way. I love the animation style. It feels like something you'd see while tripping in the desert, which, let's be honest, is so Fleet Foxes. It's almost a little disturbing in some parts, and it's super long, but you should still set aside some time to watch it!

6. The White Stripes - "Fell In Love With a Girl" - Okay, who doesn't love this song? It's so freaking fun!! And what a good idea - animating with Legos? Come on. You can't beat that.

5. Gotye - "Save Me" - Aww, Gotye! You guys know how much I love Gotye. This video is so sweet and sincere, and I love the smooth animation and the fact that the character's little squigglys look like bacon. It doesn't hurt that the assembly at the beginning of the video reminds me of The Iron Giant.

4. Daft Punk - Interstella 5555 - Okay, I guess this isn't TECHNICALLY a music video. More accurately, it's a whole album's worth of music videos put together to form a movie, which is kind of way cooler than just a regular old music video. Daft Punk teamed up with Leiji Matsumoto to make this movie as a visual companion to their album Discovery, and it's totally awesome. It's about aliens and corrupt music industrymen and intrepid heroes and you really just need to watch it and experience it for yourself. The video above is for "One More Time", one of the most famous songs from the album and also the beginning of the movie.

3. Britney Spears - "Break The Ice" - Hot damn, do I love this video. I remember seeing it for the first time on VH1 Top 20 Countdown and being completely enthralled, unable to stop watching the video over and over on Youtube. It's so badass! Britney Spears's character is just so cool, and when she makes out with that guy and corrupts his data? Oh man, SO AWESOME. I love this video so much.

2. Kanye West - "Heartless" - Kanye West is a really cool dude, because he has the same love of animated videos that I do. This is my favorite one, because I love the rotoscope animation involved here. The clothes all of the characters wear are so awesome and everything is so colorful. It's like pop art (which is appropriate, considering the Andy Warhol soup can cameo). My favorite part is the smoke off of Kanye's cigarette. For some reason, it's strikingly beautiful to me. Also Kanye's girlfriend's rainbow dress that she wears in Kanye's apartment. Where can I get that dress?

1. Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc." - At first it was hard to pick just one Gorillaz video, but then I realized that there's really no competition. "Feel Good Inc." is not only a fantastic music video, but also just a great song in general. Oddly, this video TERRIFIED ME when it first came out (I was only like 11 though, I was skittish) but I got over it eventually. I'm a huge Gorillaz fan now, and if you like animated videos, you should do yourself a favor and watch all of theirs. The characters - Noodle, 2D, Russel, and Murdoc - are so recognizable, with their own distinct personalities, and I will pretty much love them forever. Yay animated bands! YAY ANIMATED VIDEOS!!

The Great Gatsby Review

 I've been procrastinating on writing this review, and do you want to know why? Because I love The Great Gatsby. I love it so much that I was ultimately disappointed with what the movie ended up being. It had so much potential! Such promise! But under the direction of Baz Luhrmann, The Great Gatsby is just as gilded as the society that Fitzgerald tried to criticize in his original work. It's gilded and gaudy, and the gold is flaking off.
Spoilers ahead.

Relish Review

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So, confession: I'm not really a food person. Now, I know being a "foodie" is a relatively new thing in America, so I'm not a weirdo for not being one. And don't get me wrong! I may "eat to live" instead of "live to eat", but I won't shovel just any old thing into my mouth! I love eating, especially things I've never eaten before, but you probably won't ever hear me raving about some meal I ate at some fancy restaurant or anything like that. My true appreciation for food is an aesthetic one: for example, I'm not a huge hamburger fan, but look at the rainbow of colors in a good hamburger - red tomato, green lettuce, brown patty, purple onion, yellow cheese - and TELL ME that doesn't look awesome. Since I love the way food looks, this book, Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, by Lucy Knisley, is PERFECT for me. And perfect for you, too.
Note: Spoilers ahead.

Mosquito Review

It's been a while since we've heard anything from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs! I remember when the album art for "Mosquito" was released and everyone thought it was just a joke. That weird little baby still makes me deeply uncomfortable, which is a weird contrast to the actual music. Mosquito is echo-y and subdued, even on the tracks when it goes the hardest. It feels like a dark, weird movie with a very unusual plot structure - starts out with its climax, and the rest of the film is where you have to deal with the emotional aftermath. But I like that. I like the whole atmosphere of Mosquito. I like that pretty much every song is in minor key, and I like that it's drenched in reverb. I like it!

Something Great Sunday 5-12-13

Look who's back! IT'S ME! Something Great Sunday is now a PODCAST! Download it and listen to it!
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