Hold Me Like a Heaven video

[raven]

Originally Posted by Porco

lol, I know, I must do better. I mean worse. I mean try harder. I mean make less effort. I'm not sure what I mean...



I nearly always have totally different Manics videos in my head to how they turn out. But it's nice in a way, to have your imagined version that would never be quite the same if it turned into reality. Agh! There I go again being positive!

Porco ramble incoming. Just how I see it, feel free to ignore/regard me as 'reading too much into things' (I am used to it!)

One of the many things I like about this video is how it appears to be making reference to so much with so little. Take the 'triptych' of screens for example - the theme of reflection/self-realisation/awareness that pervades the album is possibly never more evident in the RIF videos than with these, to me. The actress (one Sarah Sayuri apparently, who is fantastic in these videos IMHO) is, I think, a kind of analogue or symbol for the band+themes of the album - you have the brief flickering images of her changing to James, Nicky and Sean, as well as the recurring image of her in the Samurai gear, obviously connecting her (and so the band) to the album cover's samurai. You have the umbrellas, reminiscent of the Motorcycle Emptiness video... ok, I'm still circling back round to the actual screens significance...

Obviously triptychs are not some invention of the Manics. But I think it's interesting, to me at least, to consider their use here. They call to mind the album covers of arguably the most important or pivotal moment of the band's career - between The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go - both albums with covers that feature a three-part image. The Holy Bible's Jenny Saville work Strategy (South Face/Front Face/North Face) has the figure from three perspectives, itself presumably used as symbolism of humanity looking at itself in the mirror, both ironically and non-ironically. Everything Must Go features the surviving members of the band (that is, remaining in the band) as its own kind of triptych.

So that's the past, the theme of memory. But then fast forward to now and you have this new analogue of Sayuri's 'character'/metaphor for the band looking at herself(/themselves) through the lens of the present too - and if you consider the colour scheme -the blue, the orange, the green, which are to me, very obviously at least connected to if not in direct reference to (or perhaps partly the cause of) the colours used for International Blue, Liverpool Revisited and Dylan & Caitlin singles artwork. Distant Colours' pink is missing... I wonder why? A visual pun? (The pink colours of that single are literally distant?! ). Either way, it seems quite cohesive to me, layered, thoughtful and deliberate.

Will it sell more albums/singles? I dunno. I don't really care, other than for the band's own satisfaction I guess. But I think it's a fabulous video regardless. I could go on, 'cos I see so much else in other things in the video (more on mirrors, reflection, broken things, the junk of the past, the sense of dislocation and bewilderment as to the direction of the future...) but I've possibly already sent people to sleep if they've read this far!

Read too much into it away I'd have loved a video of the 3 of them wandering around a library surrounded by books....memories, ideas, preservation, direction....hold me like a heaven....ode to books But that's me.
Y'know your umbrella point - has a point - in more ways than one It reminds me of Motorcycle now too....which is better than before when I was thinking she might look a little lost but be practical....those grey skies....always take a brolly. Good advice that.
And the triptych screens and how often they have used that imagery - now you've make me think about it. I was seeing them as symbolic of preserved images from the past - you can save it yet it's still gone. I liked the signpost 'Prohibited anchorage'... no place to settle here and the compass searching for direction maybe from (the litter and debris of the) past to the future, a compass which she also holds like a camera.....for in the end what is the future of the future but to be consigned to the past.....I think I've been distracted by the whoah whoah whooooahs (!) as when you listen it's an incredibly sad song....looking for something almost beyond all this world to find a place to belong because it's hard to find anything to hold on to and have faith in here

[Hans]

Originally Posted by Porco

but I've possibly already sent people to sleep if they've read this far!

Nope, I read that.

As I "read" the video.

It's a very meta and layered work, and the semiotics are probably more hidden than what is usual in Manics videos. Some older music videos are more direct - if not propagandic - whereas Evans' tend to talk to a more reflected "cine-literate" audience.
Which is fine [art]. Videos don't sell music anymore, anyway.

(This is my arrogance, don't tell me yours (because I'm right).)

[everlasting]

I watched the video last night on our tv with my girlfriend just to brainwash her some more with Manics stuff, even though she really likes the song. About 10 seconds in she said "How many videos have they done with an Asian girl just walking around?" haha. She did like it the coloured screens though of her appearing and singing, and the very brief appearance of the Manics too on the screens.

[Dancing Kirby]

It got me thinking. I must have been introduced to Distant Colours by its video. That didn’t work out well.

If this video had been the first time I’d heard HMLAH, I’d probably have spent all yesterday (and the rest of my life) going on about how bad the song is.

People used to say all their singles sound the same. Now they can say they all look the same too.

[Porco]

Decided to risk buying the video on iTunes despite there being no real information I could find about whether the vids are in HD or not. Happy to confirm it is HD, and at a much more generous bit-rate than YouTube. I still had some iTunes store credit from a discount gift card I got a while back, so I got all the other Kieron Evans vids too, all in similarly decent quality, which is nice. Would still like a Blu-ray ideally though.

Originally Posted by raven

Y'know your umbrella point - has a point - in more ways than one It reminds me of Motorcycle now too....which is better than before when I was thinking she might look a little lost but be practical....those grey skies....always take a brolly. Good advice that.

Hah, yes, good advice. Enjoyed reading your thoughts on the video.

Originally Posted by Hans

It's a very meta and layered work, and the semiotics are probably more hidden than what is usual in Manics videos. Some older music videos are more direct - if not propagandic - whereas Evans' tend to talk to a more reflected "cine-literate" audience.

Yep, agreed.

Originally Posted by Dancing Kirby

People used to say all their singles sound the same. Now they can say they all look the same too.

It’s not true though is it? They have a wide variety of sounds and videos. I guess it’s subjective, and there is a distinct visual style to Evans’ videos, but it’s only the more recent ones.

“People used to say all their singles sound the same” would have been a terrible line for the opening song of RIF

[rosetree]

I really like the video and I think it goes well with the song. I think the lady in the videos, is Japanese and I think she portrays Samurai culture and the future, compared with ancient Samurai warriors, in silk gowns and kimonos and were included in war. I think she seems like a future warrior and the Philip Larkin quote in the poem refers to stillness and the future, like the manics song, so I think the theme goes with the album.

It was great to see the Manics perform 5 of the new songs last week and it was nice to stand far back with my boyfriend, as it was an amazing concert and I hope the album position will change again.