There are many different ways to approach music videos as a medium. Directors may opt for intricate dance choreography, flashy animation, high fashion displays, non-narrative visual accompaniment, comedic satire, controversial NSFW videos featuring explicit sexuality and violence or some may choose to tell a short story in a more cinematic style. Many of the best music videos combine all or a few of these.

In my neverending search for the perfect music video, I see these patterns and combinations repeated again and again. As videos grow increasingly complex though, sometimes it’s the simplest ones that strike me most, as is the case with this week’s best video, the Nick Cobby directed video for Max Cooper & Tom Hodge’s "Fragments of Self." Read on to find out which of this weeks’ music videos tickled my fancy, and why "Fragments Of Self" was my favourite.

Radical Face’s Ben Cooper stars and directs the atmospheric music video for "Holy Branches." With it’s dark, dreamy earthtones and ominous masked apparitions, I couldn’t help being reminded of Hayao Miyazaki’s No-Face creature from one of my favourite Japanese feature length animated films, Spirited Away. Like No-Face, it isn’t immediately made obvious what the intent of these creatures is. Are they here to cause harm to Cooper either of a physical of mystical nature? are they reaper like beings come to claim his soul? Are they tormented souls seeking his assistance in finding closure after their untimely demise? Your guess is as good as mine. The video is a very effective counterpart to the quiet and bittersweet Folk stylings of Radical Face. The video begins with Cooper awaking from Bed, and soon being haunted or slowly pursued by a number of beings with elongated fingers and unsettling white masks. While the video doesn’t tell a formal story with a start, beginning and end, we definitely get a sense that there is a profoundly deeper significance infused into it’s core..

Califone’s video for "Frosted Tips" is a highly conceptual video thats gimmick is a brilliant vehicle used to advance multiple storylines and introduce many characters and scenarios in a very limited amount of time. The video opens with a man jumping from the top of a building. As he falls, the camera slows to allow the viewer to peek into each of the windows of all building’s tenants. We see them doing a multitude of things, and as the video progresses, the scenes contained within each apartment become more controversial, disturbing and engaging. By the time we bare witness to two children playing with a shotgun they’ve found in a drawer, we realize we have been completely distracted by the principal action at hand - that our antagonist is still quickly plummeting towards certain death. While I have seen the Rear Window voyeuristic approach taken in music videos before, where "Frosted Tips" differs is in the relentless eccentricities of its building's inhabitants. An often darkly funny video that serves as a good literal accompaniment to Califone’s track.

Once again, the much-adored Scottish electro-pop trio CHVRCHES team up with director Sing J. Lee for the music video for their excellent track “Lies.” While the video does share many stylistic similarities to Sing’s work on “The Mother We Share," instead of seeming repetitive, I felt a strong sense of satisfaction in a product that matches both the consistency of their previous video as well as that of the style found throughout all of their music. Both videos feature shots of the band, ultraviolet lights and lasers, series of shots of actors doing an assortment of serious things in darkly lit settings, like running or looking contemplative, and finally, both videos show restraint in revealing their most beautiful shots, which are kept at bay until the final moments of the video. This time, the money shot is an amazing rendered rotating composite image of all three band members seemingly frozen in time and beautifully coloured. I also quite enjoyed the shots of Lauren seemingly exceptionally tall positioned in front of spiral lighting effects. While I would have been completely satisfied had these visceral effects been used more throughout the duration of the video, the buildup is certainly a technique that Sing J. Lee excels at.

Animator duo PICNIC, comprised of Mina Song and Liam OConnor, have crafted a stunning and imaginative music video for These New Puritan’s “V (Island Song)." Chalk full of vivid colours and captivating imagery, the clip takes us on the journey of a young female character who is transported to a world of fantasy and other oddities via a theatre screen. The simple illustration and design of the video helps to give it a highly stylish appeal that sets it apart from many other animated music videos. It’s a dreamlike and engaging experience that assists in extracting elements of the song that may not be as evident without the visual aid.

Nick Cobby’s music video for Max Cooper & Tom Hodge’s "Fragments Of Self" is less a music video than it is a excessively well executed visualisation of the track it accompanies. The video opens with a series of stunning shots of cloudy solutions injected in a clear liquid that’s presumably water. The entire video is shot in black and white and these particular portions of the video accompany the calm piano portions of the song. Once the harsh IDM style percussion sets in, the visuals change drastically into a sharply edited sequence of jagged shapes and other fragmented imagery. In a normal case, I’d wish there had been more colour in the video, but in this case, there’s almost a silent implied colour palette that I’m sure varies from person to person. Perhaps it’s the director's intent to have us decide what colours we’d like to imagine could inhabit the unique landscape of the video. While I’ve seen many videos that live and breathe the music they accompany, this one sets itself apart by presenting it’s visualization in two separate very contrasting segments. Few videos released this year and as simple have made a mark on me as "Fragments of Life" has.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Anna Calvi "Suddenly"

Miami Horror ft. Sarah Chernoff "Real Slow"

Vic Mensa ft. Eliza Doolittle "YNSP"

We Are Shining "Wheel"

White Sea "They Don't Know"

Wolf Alice "Blush"

Yuna "Rescue"