Diandra’s 2012 in New Music

The excellent Bad Girls video Romain Gavras directed for M.I.A. was already featured in Ghost Writer’s post on the music video highlights of 2012. However, I’d have to add to the cameo category Noomi Rapace’s multiple guises in the (NSFW) video for The Rolling Stones’ Doom and Gloom

After watching, I immediately looked for gifs of shotgun-toting Rapace blasting zombies.

On the K-pop front, Super Junior’s SPY [MV] made me want to dance, while watching 2NE1’s I Love You at 3 AM eventually led to me comparing the video to the work of classic film director Josef von Sternberg. I cannot end this paragraph on 2012’s music videos without mentioning Riz MC’s All Of You [MV].

I’ve known for a while that actor Riz Ahmed also raps, but even being the fan I am, I somehow didn’t find out until halfway into 2012 that he had released a full-length album in 2011! The video, starring talented Black Mirror and Attack the Block actress Jodie Whittaker, is a fitting lust-struck complement for such an alternately creepy and tantalizing track.

So what was my song of the year?

We return to Kaizers Orchestra. Violeta Violeta Volume III concludes the story the supernaturally powerful child Violeta, and struggle between her parents and other assortedcharacters. Aldri vodka, Violeta translates to “Don’t Drink Vodka, Violeta.” Kaizers front man Janove Ottesen sings as the father character, calling for Violeta to return to his care and warning her about the drink that tormented her mother. It’s lovely melody and counterpoint that, when the guitars break in around the 2:25 mark, ascends to an epic scale.