Music has always been an excellent source of inspiration. Particularly if you are stuck with some problem you can’t find a workaround for, a beautiful song can give you a new perspective, let you see the problem from a different angle. And sometimes it’s just useful to make a break — for instance, watching some music videos.

SmashingMagazine wrote this entry a few days ago, and i just can say its brillant. They present some unusual music videos for your monday’s coffee break. And as SM wrotes, some of the videos are thought-provoking, some of them are funny and some are bizarre. While many of them are well-known, you’ll probably find some videos you’ve never watched before. The videos all perfectly to the music which is being played in the background. Hopefully, everyone will find something new and inspiring for himself/herself. Please notice that you might need to watch some videos at least twice to get the idea behind them.

You might want to read the descriptions of the videos — they are provided below every link. The screenshots often don’t reveal that much about the videos they stand for.

Rob Dougan – "Clubbed to death"

 A few days ago i also blogged about Rob Dougan and "Clubbed To Death" – and its no surprise for me that this video is also listed in this entry. This video has some incredible editing and directing. Can´t describe this better, it´s symbolic and so powerful.

Some of you might not know that Rob Dougan also recorded a track for a sequence in the Matrix Reloaded, in the Chateau which he suitably titled ‘Chateau’. It was written and produced by Rob and the orchestra recorded at the world famous Fox Newman Scoring Stage, where composers such as John Williams have recorded many scores for films.

Sia Furler – "Breath Me"

Sia Furler is also one of my favourite musicians ever. She started with the acid-jazz formation Crisp. Her second album, entitled Colour The Small One, was released 2005 in Australia and Europe and conquered the world. This downtempo album is a mixture of acoustic instruments and electronic backing in her material, which led to comparisons to artists such as Dido and Sarah McLachlan. It featured "The Bully", which was a collaboration with American musician Beck Hansen. Two further songs were co-written and produced, but have yet to be released. Colour the Small One, though, spawned the singles "Breathe Me" and "Where I Belong" — the latter track was earmarked to appear on the soundtrack of the film Spider-Man 2.

The music video for "Breathe Me" makes use of 2,500 Polaroids in flip-animation to reflect a desolate passage of solitude indoors in West London.

Daft Punk, OK Go and Radiohead

Daft Punk – theres nothing to say, i love them since i can hear. Probably one of the most colorful animated music videos of all time. Daft Punk, one more time. Ok Go with the treadmill video and Radiohead is also included. SM decided to add the video "Just" in their list and after watching this video you´ll probably ask yourself the question, what could the man on the street possibly have said?

And Prodigy, dont forget them. Prodigy’s “Out of Space” is probably one of the weirdest videos ever created. Welcome back to the 90s — this is how some videos looked like then. The song which was * for the whole generation.

It’s been nearly 4 years since the last Radiohead album ‘Hail for the Thief’. While I enjoyed that album as I’ve generally enjoyed most of what they’ve produced, The Bends and Ok Computer being the zenith of their output as far as I’m concerned, their new album ‘In Rainbows’ is a completely different beast altogether.

The major difference here is the way in which they’ve decided to distribute their album. See they’ve decided not to go the traditional route and release the album via a label. Instead what they’ve decided to do is let you download it off their website. Nothing new there, right? Ah but here’s the catch. YOU decide how much you actually want to pay for it. You can either pay something, or download it for free.

This turns everything on it’s head as far as I’m concerned. I’ve always claimed that the price of music is completely and utterly extorionate. A tiny teeny fraction of the cost of what you pay actually goes to the creators themselves, instead the majority goes to everyone else around. £12 for an album is just too much. So download it you say and just keep the music? You obviously don’t know me very well. When it comes to music from my favourite bands I will buy the CD. It’s just the way it goes. For me it’s not just the music, it’s the package. It’s the entire experience. I’m also a collector of sorts. I like to have physical copies of material by certain bands. I own a proper CD player and Amp that I paid through my nose to get a better sound. If you think that you can’t tell the difference, then you’ve obviously not heard a proper system in action.

Sure, this might be something of a dinosaur mentality however it’s one of those thought processes that I honestly cannot get away from. The thing is Radiohead are known for the amount of effort and creativity that they put into their package as well. They obviously feel the same way about this sort of thing, otherwise we wouldn’t have the school library book for Amnesiac or the Map for Hail to the Thief. Case in point, in addition to the actual download option, there’s also the option to pre-order the physical edition of this album, which comes with 2 CDs with artwork, photographs, lyrics and 2 Vinyls of the material as well. All encased in a hardcover book and slipcase.

I’ve only just found out about all this, since I only found out yesterday that they’ve got a new album out. So I quickly downloaded the album (more on that in a little while). Is it any good? The short answer is that ‘In Rainbows’ is BRILLIANT. It’s one of the best things I’ve heard this year, and this is a year where the Smashing Pumpkins released their return to form album. It’s a mixture of ‘The Bends’, ‘Ok Computer’ and maybe even a little bit of ‘Pablo Honey’. It’s not this heavy rock album. It’s a glass of fine wine, where the drums and guitars are back. Yorke’s voice is crisp and clear over the music in this perfect mixture that only they can achieve. God it’s great to hear well produced music again.

So back to the download versus physical object question, what am I going to do? Well I’ve already downloaded the album for free, and have ordered the physical edition of the album as well.