lyricvids_lead

An army of faceless Sia graffiti warriors, nudie night vision skinny-dips with Foals, the wide world of emoji metaphor with Memoryhouse and more, in another glorious week of the year’s best lyric vids, coming at ya in a burst of five via the 43rd week of 2015.

Sia – ‘Alive

Sia goes all out Kelly Clarkson empowerment in this ominous army of shadow-faced graffiti artists, all sporting sia half-black-half-blonde wigs. Little Banksy derivative with the artwork sometimes, and the 99% left fist is all sorts of insufferable in such a self-righteous narrative, but the lyric graffito banditos are intoxicating, with their inscriptions tagged all over a concrete jungle setting:

Alive

Anthrax – ‘Evil Twin

Some heavy themes being tackled by the metal icons here, guitarist Ian Scott telling Rolling Stone the song is about his “relationship to the violence perpetrated by radical extremists,” and his “hatred towards the inability to stop it.” Bush, Clinton, Reagan, ISIS — Scott and crew come out of the gate swinging, and never look back, flame and blood lettering assaulting the eyeballs for maximum shock. It can get a little berating, but that’s the well-done point:

EvilTwin

Foals – ‘Night Swimmers

Night vision naked swim erotica from the Oxford britpopsters. Much more aggressive than you’d expect a skinny-dip adventure to play out, with snuff-film-ish editing tricks and no companion for this solo female swimmer clad in crisp white tennis shoes. Not sure if there’s a statement in there some where, but the digital breakdown lyrics are a treat to watch, and the nudity stays tasteful. Skinny-dip on, Foals:

nightswimmers

Cloud Cult – ‘No Hell

Shot on a phone as a bonus prize for the Minnesota big-swell folksters’ 11th record, The Seeker — a more polished video is on the way — this forest-searching shuffle borders that line between fan-made and behind-the-scenes, but with the pastel filter and little sharpie and moleskin stop-motion tricks, like most midwest DIY projects, gets the job done. The hyper lapse tree climbing scenes are pretty unique, though:

nohell

Memoryhouse – ‘Dream Shake

Not the first to tap into the emoji well, and kind of a shock coming from the dream pop team that painted the aqua-velvet atmosphere of “To the Lighthouse,” with a new bass synth thread that belongs on a Katy Perry production. Thoroughly entertaining, though, if you speak the language of emoji. From hands-over-mouth monkey to sailboats and lipstick kisses, no metaphor goes untouched, surround a song about which dreams are worth chasing:

dreamshake