50 Best Music Videos of 2025 You Probably Missed Part 3: 30 – 21

We’re halfway through our yearly look at the best indie and underground music videos of 2025. Today we look at my personal favorite rapper, some beautiful animation, and a pagan horror story. Put on your headphones and come with us!

30. “Settle Down,” Low Cut Connie

There are days when it’s impossible to believe things are the way they are. Low Cut Connie teams up with photojournalist Alex Wroblewski to sum up the last decade of police militarization, from the streets of Ferguson, Missouri to today’s ICE raids. It’s a sobering video that makes you ache to think of raising children here now.

29. “I Didn’t Come Here for Art,” Lynks

This video reminds of me of one of my favorite quotes from Almost Famous:

“The Doors? Jim Morrison? He’s a drunken buffoon posing as a poet. Give me The Guess Who. They got the courage to be drunken buffoons, which makes them poetic.”

As someone that spends a lot of time in art spaces, I do love tryhard weirdness. That said, sometimes it’s easy to get lost in your own head and forget the inherent artistry of simply dancing to music.

28. “Roadwork Rappin’,” Aesop Rock

Ah, the walking random number generator that is Aesop Rock. I’ve been following him for years and I still never know what’s going to happen when I click on a YouTube link. This time, he’s created an impromptu children’s show about the benefits of construction. There’s no joke, no twist, just a wholesome Sesame Street moment that is as cute as a man rapping about the manifestations of his mental illness can be.

27. “I Love My Dog,” Randy Sharp/CarBot Animations

In August, Israeli musician Randy Sharp dropped a cute but mostly unheard track called “I Love My Dog.” It probably would have stayed deep underground if the people at CarBot Animations hadn’t used it to back an adorable cartoon video about Hollow Knight: Silksong. The mix between Sharpe’s tune and the iconic Team Cherry characters (especially the Bell Beast!) has made it my number one brain worm for 2025.

26. “Pale Song,” Dove Ellis

Director Xander Lewis ups the melancholy quite a bit in this new Dove Ellis video. An old man sadly watches a couple dance lovingly together as a young woman piles more and junk around him. The video matches Ellis’s morbid lyrics about death and how the world passes us all by.

25. “Skin Tight Jeans,” Remy Bond

Remy Bond goes full baby doll in this nostalgia-flavored video. Set in Tokyo, Bond and her babe pack vamp and dance their way through a Kodachrome daydream. While short on plot, it’s long on retro vibes and just utterly delightful.

24. “Take a Look Inside,” David Shaw feat. Jim James

I can’t even tell you how much AI-generated slop I had to wade through this year for this countdown. I got to the point that seeing honest-to-god animation brought tears to my eyes. Andrew Knives created this simple, but effective fairytale journey for “Take a Look Inside” that was like water for the desert of my soul. Support real art, kids.

23. “Mercury,” Sub Urban

My pick for best solo interpretative dance video this year comes from Sub Urban. Dancer Stephanie Dai performs disturbing and hypnotic routine where she seems to be fighting her own limbs for control of her mind and body. Right to the end it’s a one-woman dual of motion that is impossible to take your eyes off of.

22. “Antidote,” Sludge Mother

I can honestly say I have never seen a music video shot almost entirely from the inside of someone’s mouth before. It’s less gross than it sounds, at least until it becomes clear that singer Cami Petyn is actually a zombie mindlessly reliving her life as she rots away. As the kids say, big mood.

21. “Hole,” Faetooth

If Robert Eggers had directed the Metallica “Enter Sandman” video using leftover sets and costumes from The VVitch, this is what it might have looked like. A woman flees into the woods with her baby and collapses, only for it to be missing the next morning. The rest is a haze of witches, twisted dolls, and a bizarre imitation of birth that is deeply unsettling.

See you tomorrow for Part 4!

This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.