Mae Stephens is searching for a way out in Elliot Simpson's dazzling promo for If We Ever Broke Up. It's the viral alt-pop hit you've been hearing everywhere from TikTok to H&M's dressing rooms, and it finally comes complete with a brilliant visual from Simpson and team. In the video, we see Mae devise fresh ways to escape from her overwhelming boyfriend - from poisoning his tea to letting him float away tied to a set of balloons - and from that spark of an idea, a hilarious, eccentric visual ensues. Offbeat and irreverent in its style, it's a perfect visual introduction to the artist (for those who have the track in their heads all day long, but may not know the person behind it yet) and it's a promise of more fun to come in future releases.

Dylan Friese-Greene riffs on the mortal thoughts of Skinny Pelembe - with the help of AI.The video for Deadman Deadman Deadman features over 500 AI-generated faces, but Friese-Greene uses the technology quite subtly, to reflect the musician/producer's musings on the big question: what's it all about?From the 'real' Skinny Pelembe, aka Doya Beardmore, in a photographic studio set-up, we get machine-created spin-offs of the artist, intercut with numerous older, craggier faces, that repeat and multiply. And throughout, there is the symbol of our inevitable destination - the skull - rendered in different forms and illustrations, including being cradled, Hamlet-like, by Pelembe.Friese-Greene's clever use of the technology gets to the heart of the matter - and it also does a great job in presenting Skinny Pelembe in an impactful way.

On your marks, get set... go euphoric, with Fa & Fon's hypnotically zany video for Georgia.The California-via-London artist is back with new single It's Euphoric, and the directing duo make her the star of her own wonderfully strange, uber-stylised world set in a the world's coolest athletics track.Georgia joins a intriguing cast of characters in a race around the track, where her competitors are weighed down with anxiety, and their devotion to Fashion. And soon the visual echoes of their bodies warp and glitch intermittently.It's a wonderfully vibrant, idiosyncratic vision, where Georgia stands at the pretention-pricking centre of a memorable clash of inventive styling and cool FX. Every shot works to reinforce its whimisical distinctiveness, yet Georgia emerges as the hero, both part of and apart from the surrounding lunacy. It's arguably the most impressive outing in music videos by the Watkins sisters - aka Fa & Fon - so far.

Mia Barnes directs a heartfelt promo for Ed Sheeran's Eyes Closed - the first release from forthcoming album Subtract. Hanging out at a bar with only a few strangers for company, the video opens with Ed drinking away his sorrows, attempting to bury an unhappiness lurking within him. Before long, he begins to see a giant, fuzzy blue monster - a representation of the sadness that he carries around with him. And it starts to shadow him everywhere he goes. The portrayal of such emotions as a rather loveable furry creature perhaps suggests that when you hold onto negative emotions for so long, they almost become comfortable and familiar, adding a layer of meaning to the poignant visual. But of course it's also a very astute way of portraying a negative emotion within the recognisable Sheeran universe.It's a true feat of visual effects, not only with the main monster design but for several other characters with their own emotional creatures, and Ed's stirring performance is the glue that binds the dreamlike, tender promo together.

Jain takes a whimsical journey into outer space, in Jules Jolly's impressive promo for The Fool. The trippy video starts with the artist receiving a Tarot card from a fortune telling machine, before being transported to an arid otherworld, where she begins the journey into space. Blending spectacular VFX landscapes with a gentle performance style, it's a delightful visual with plenty of character. A colourful, imaginative antidote to monotonous grey weather of late winter in the UK...

Hugh Mulhern directs a visual assault on the senses for Hak Baker's fierce anti-tech anthem Telephones 4 Eyes. Mulhern's video is a mesmerising clash of live action, animation, stock footage and VFX, smashed together in a frantic, hypnotic fashion - with a little help from AI. In the song, Baker is lamenting the state of the society we live in today, and the video matches the lyrical content of the aggrieved track, and the deluge of visual iconography matches the neverending stream of content we consume on a day-to-day basis.And in a real change from his excellent back catalogue of music videos, the most you see of Hak Baker is his mouth appearing from a tear in a man's stomach. You won't not be looking at men's torsos in the same way in the near future. Taking advantage of trends whilst completely flipping them on their heads, Mulhern has created something singular and visionary, which not only brilliantly reflects the times we are living in, but also a project that is impossible to tear you eyes away from. "If I told you I had an initial rationale for everything in the video and it was all carefully figured out, I’d be lying," admits Mulhern. "In truth it was one of those ideas that came together almost instantaneously. I think that’s to do with how clear Hak’s ideas are in the song. Tetsuo the Iron Man was a key image, and I also think the inside of [the song’s producer] Dan Carey’s studio played a part in inspiring our phone thief’s lab. HR Giger meets Abe’s Odyssey circa this weird stop motion cartoon called Mr Bumpy."We spent hours figuring out what found footage felt right and was obscure enough to feed the sensation of over stimulation. We intentionally wanted to steer away from doing anything that felt too political or pointed when the song was carrying that message so effectively."Things went off the deep end in the final few days of the video. We sent some stuff over to Dom (infinite.vibes) to create AI sequences stylistically informed by the stop motion animation and what he sent back far exceeded my expectations. It’s my favourite thing I’ve made to date and all I wanna do now is expand on the techniques we experimented with.”

Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett & FX Goby direct a super ambitious promo for new track Silent Running, featuring Adeleye Omotayo.The video is a rip-roaring clash of live action and seamless CGI, and sees the other members of the band help 2-D escape an unfortunate fate. Building upon the narrative arc of the upcoming album - in which the group are spiralling towards a day of reckoning called The Rupture - the video is an inspired mix of Disney fantasy and cult-like horror, which sits well within the greater Gorillaz canon. It's a big achievement, well worth all of the attention it is getting.

Our lives as humans play out on a massive, interwoven scale, in Yoonha Park's promo for Squid. The video for Swing (In a Dream) opens in an indoor sports court, where two men are playing basketball. A member of staff repaints the lines on the court whilst this happens, and a man walks across the court, seemingly disconnected from each other. This is where things really ramp up. An influx of people doing all kinds of activities - from the expected, e.g. walking around, to the unexpected, e.g. trying to swim - suddenly spills over into the court, and it's as if the controlled chaos of everyday life has been packed into this sports hall. It's truly mesmerising, frantic and slightly nervewracking, and the choreography of the whole thing must have been a huge challenge. It is, however, pulled off magically, with brilliant visual effects and an overwhelming sense of the uncanny, perfectly blending the real world and those in dreams. This is what it is to be a human - messy, fun and very much disorientating.