The A/V Room: May

It's been a while since the last edition of the A/V Room, and to be honest it's less to do with laziness and more to do with a lack of clips good enough to justify being collected together worthy in one post. Then, like karmic backlash, a whole spate of them arrive in one month! When it rains...

Lowlakes - Buffalo (Dir: Lacey Whelan)

Kicking us off is the latest from Melbourne-via-Alice Springs quartet Lowlakes. The recent AMR Introductees (yeah, that's a thing now) recently delivered not only a beautifully realised self-titled EP, but an excellent live show to launch it as well. Now, there's a clip to accompany EP highlight, 'Buffalo.' An animated fable that suits the song's mystique and haunting tone.
The moral of the tale? Don't throw apples.

The A/V Room: December

Video time, and no, don't worry - we're not going to inject your usual dose of quality music videos with some sort of Christmas related nonsense, just all the recent clips that are worth your peepers, and hey, they may just be some of the best this year.

Enjoy:

Fleet Foxes - The Shrine/An Argument (dir: Sean Pecknold)

One of the best tracks from one of the best albums of the year deserves not a good video, but one of the best. Sean (brother of band leader Robin) Pecknold delivers just that, in a beautifully rendered showcase of handcrafted animation with a mysterious, rustic atmosphere and rich, enigmatic characters. The visual matches to the soundtrack are brilliant and the lasting impact is that you've just beared witness to a stunning piece of art. Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps the most artsy video of the year. 

The A/V Room: August

The reason this comes so hot on the heels of the July edition of The A/V Room, is that most of these videos are clips I didn't have room to feature last time, so here they are with their own little feature. Also, if you happen to be on facebook (which is highly likely if you have an internet connection) then may i suggest you 'like' the brand-spanking new Al's Music Rant page? If you look just to the right you'll see the widget to do so, or through your usual social media conventions as well. Lovely.

The A/V Room: July

So I've decided to make The A/V Room a semi-regular thing now, sort of like Wrangling The Heard but with visuals, let's not make a big deal of it...

I mean, I've often grumbled about the frivolities of the music video (notably here and here AMR fans), and while I still maintain that 90% of the time they're dull and boring - like this awful promo for Bon Iver - Calgary, bleerrrggggh - but they're still a pretty powerful thing when done correctly.

The following are examples of, in this blogger's humble opinion, it being done correctly.