Animation has always held an important role in music videos, from subtle visual effects and cutaways to full-blown CGI events and intricate lyric videos. Though not always as celebrated as their live action counterparts, animation opens up a world that can only be crafted and experienced through the medium.

So not before time, we're celebraing the great animation being created in music videos with a new series entitled Animation Inspiration (okay, its not great, but we're going with it). In this first playlist, we take a look back at the Best Animated Music Videos of 2020... so far.

Including Will Hooper's glitchy Sims-esque nightmare for Declan McKenna, Mr Yankey's striking stop-motion photography for Mikill Pane, a haunting trip to hell in Nick Cinelli's vision for Ghostemane; a saunter down the Uncanny Valley with the uncanny Cole Kush; and of course Meat Dept's incredible tour de force of insane imagination and CGI skills for the thrash-electro dude known as Igorrr... 

Videos

• Declan McKenna 'Beautiful Faces' by Will Hooper
• Dinosaur Pile-Up 'Round The Bend' by Michael Robertson
• Ezra Furman 'Every Feeling' by Sivon Kidron
• Igorrr 'Very Noise' by Meat Dept.
• Ghostemane 'Bonesaw' by Nick Cinelli
• Gorillaz ft Fatoumata Diawara 'Désolé' (Ep. 2) by Jamie Hewlett
• Low Octane 'Shock The Monkey' by Jennifer Yarbrough & RJ Vinalon
• Lucky Chops 'Traveler' by Daniel Almagor and Raman Djafari
• Mikill Pane ft. Micky Blue & MRTL 'My Legacy' by Mr Yankey
• Parker 'Become The Fool' by Hans Van Vliet
• Piero Pirupa 'Braindead (Heroin Kills)' by Yousef
• Sauce 'All Of Us' by Luke Dewhurst
• Somni 'Home' by Man Mantis
• Sparks 'One For The Ages' by Chintis Lundgren
• TNGHT 'Gimme Summn' by Cole Kush