Beyoncé's Eye-Popping Video For The Incredible "Countdown" Has Arrived (Plus A Way To Make It Even Better)

​Beyoncé's thrill-a-minute "Countdown" is one of the best songs of the year, riding a Boyz II Men sample, whirling drums, and a bravura vocal performance by the singer—plus liberal usage of the heretofore-unknown-to-me lovers' appellation "boof"—and zipping them all up into a giddy three-and-a-half-minute fidelity pledge that will melt even the most iced-over-by-OKCupid heart. When 4 first arrived earlier this year, I wondered why its single release wasn't, like, immediate; it's a sugar rush of a song, with a more accessible hook than the similarly stuff-stuffed "Run The World (Girls)" and a higher wattage than the lush album opener "1 + 1." But even in the on-demand age (perhaps especially now) waiting can be a good thing! And so, here's the video for "Countdown," directed by Adria "daughter of Tom" Petty, full of bright colors and split-screens and iChat-like closeups of B mouthing along and making stankface when she even thinks of her man leaving her and what I think is a shout-out to Flashdance's rehearsal scenes, not to mention at one point a very curious outfit that's part bathing suit, part cape, and designed expressly for the singer to show off just how pregnant she actually was when the video was shot. Watch below.

I eagerly await the YouTube instructional video on the choreography for the "Beyoncés lined up and doing a countdown" bit near the end. For now, I'll just watch the clip in zoetrope form and have my mind blown again and again and again (via Tyler Coates).

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