Chris Counts Down Buzzworthy's Top 5 Videos Of 2009 -- Number 5: Rihanna 'Russian Roulette' & Number 4: Vampire Weekend 'Cousins'

Don't care if you've got a million dollar budget or you're working on a shoestring: if you even bothered making a music video for your song in 2009, it was essential that you brought it.

Don't just have some lame performance piece; actually tell us something deeper about the music by using images. Wow us. Make us laugh. Make us hit rewind. Okay, I'll stop sounding like an Obama speech and get to the clips.

Behold, my top 5 videos of 2009. Promise, after each one you will consider it brought.

+ Number 5: Rihanna, "Russian Roulette"
As a song, my allegiance probably lies with "Hard"'s Young Jeezy cameo and room-shaking beat. But as don't-call-it-a-comeback music videos go, Rihanna's "Russian Roulette" was stellar. It's a dizzying interrogation room play, where the seat of power is traded back and forth multiple times and plumes of colored smoke obscure the truth. Director Anthony Mandler's slow-moving tracking shots somehow perfectly capture the feeling of regret within the song.

+ Number 4: Vampire Weekend, "Cousins"
From the dark hallways and claustrophobic rooms of "Russian Roulette," we  move on to the sunny setting of Vampire Weekend's breakneck-paced "Cousins." In this Garth Jennings-directed clip (the first video from VW's sophomore album, Contra), Ezra Koenig and his pals keep winding up where they started from, telling a story with found objects, surf-punk-rockabilly guitars and whatever else they pick up along the way.

Tags Rihanna, Vampire Weekend, video, Young Jeezy