The year is ending, so we're taking stock, starting with the year's finest music videos. And while pouring through video after video last night thinking about this, I wasn't looking for the TRL sorta junk heap. Not like you would see a whole music video if you turned TRL on these days anyway, but you catch the drift. Reality TV killed the music video star. But YouTube has given a little bit of a stage back to the art of the video, so this year was full of some great ones.

The following are fine pieces of film mixed with some excellent tunage, but are selected solely for the video treatment and the way it works with the song, not for 'hawt' singers or how good the song may or may not have been.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Scene & Heard's favorite musical videos of 2007. Please, enjoy and feel free to toss your 2 cents into the hat. 2 girls, 1 cup did not make the cut..

5. LCD Soundsystem - "All My Friends"
Naturally, the best song of the year should have one of the best videos of the year. And any song that can hold your attention for 7 minutes, 42 seconds with a single-take shot for a performance video deserves such accolades. The slow climactic build of the video is epic. Not to mention, James Murphy looks like something out of Tron. Wicked! Sadly, neither the song nor the video really crossed over into the mainstream.




4. Rjd2 - "Work It Out"
Remember that Fatboy Slim video with Christopher Walken? Well this isn't as good as that, but it's close, with some dude dancing all over the city on crutches with more suave and mojo than any of those "Dancing With The Stars" hacks. Don't try these moves at home. Not to mention, RJD2 is a hip-hop hometown fav in Philly. Dig on that.




3. Feist - "1,2,3,4"
You probably recently caught this on iPod Nano commercials, but forget that. I even want you to forget that the song is undeniably charming. The awesomeness of the video overshadows everything else about it. It's probably the single greatest one-take choreographed video ever! From the cleverly moving camera to the moves, it's perfect. Try not to smile. Dare ya!



2. Arcade Fire - "Neon Bible" (elevator performance)
This is not an official video for the title track off of the Arcade Fire's masterpiece album released early this year. But this performance of the entire band crammed into an elevator shows why they're one of the more clever and most important bands making noise today. Seriously, who would have thought tearing paper made for fine percussion? I want to step into an elevator like this at some point..



1. Mute Math - "Typical"
This seems to be the year of awesome one take videos. But this one even defies the laws of physics. The band learned, practiced, and performed the song BACKWARDS for this video. This is the coolest thing you'll see all year. Even better than 2 girls 1 cup..