Childish Gambino - “Sober” Video (Dir. Hiro Murai)

As I figured out when I put together my list of last year’s 40 best music videos, Hiro Murai has arguably succeeded Nabil as the greatest director currently working in the music-video field. He made Flying Lotus’ “Never Catch Me,” my favorite video of the last year, and he was on that list more than any other director. One of his better videos from last year was the creature-feature clip for Childish Gambino’s “Telegraph Ave,” and now he’s reunited with Gambino to helm the clip for “Sober,” a non-rapped synth-funk track from Gambino’s recent Kauai EP. In the video, we see a supremely intense and zonked-out Donald Glover doing whatever he can to impress a disinterested young lady in a diner. It’s a bit like Michael Jackson’s “The Way You Make Me Feel” video, with the creepy undercurrents brought to the forefront. Great video, and Glover deserves a lot of credit for his physically intimidating performance and his alien facial expressions.