If I Made the Music Video: Happiness edition
Last Sunday, I posted the MP3 of Metronomy's remix of Goldfrapp's "Happiness" featuring verses by Michael from the Teenagers. This is pretty much part 2 of that post.
So it's a bit more than glaringly obvious that a video for this track will never wind up soundtracking a music video given Metronomy's remix of Goldfrapp's "Happiness" is 1. a "remix' and 2. a b-side, but I couldn't help myself. I'm a very visual person and what with the cinematic-ness of the track, I instantly began imagining a scenario. So I now present "The Treatment" (Metronomy Dead Disco Remix MP3) for "Happiness."
If you would like to be kept in the dark about the levels of my imagination/craziness, I'll give you a Lemony Snicket-like warning and tell you to turn back now.
I'm really inspired by the music of the track. It sounds tropical on some level to me and the strings bridge near the end of the remix reminds me of the guitar part from that summer-y Gap commercial that ran a few years ago - the one synced with the Seals & Crofts song "Summer Breeze." Remember? "Summer breeze, make me feel fine..." So maybe that comparison is what's giving "Happiness" a bit of a tropical vibe in my mind, but I don't think that's entirely the case... I think the percussion and other elements add to the quality too.
So I see this woman, Alison Goldfrapp if you will, at some island resort. She's come to escape her demons from the mainland and maybe heal in the process. The demon being her failed romantical relationship. Failed for whatever reason. She's come here to leave it behind, but in every scene it's all too clear she hasn't. It's the kind of resort adorned with upcoming concert posters advertising such acts as Barry Manilow and Neil Sedaka and wood paneled walls as well as hatch roofing and torches every few feet outdoors.
It starts with her in her resort room, sitting on the bed amid open luggage to indicate she recent arrival. She sits in contemplation before getting up to take part in the day. She looks reluctant as she exits her room, casting a glance behind her as she shuts the door as if not totally wanting to leave.
First chorus:
taking a dance lesson
Everyone swirls around her in happiness like that scene from Almost Famous where the band-aids deflower Patrick Fuget, except his expression showed he was a willing participant and in Alison's case it's clear she doesn't belong. The male dance instructor is giving her a beguiling look and using his hands to be like "c'mon" in order to coax her into participating as if him being her dance partner is what she's been holding out for. He does the mambo a bit for means of further temptation. A couple dancing together eases right up into her personal space to smile - they're having the time of their life.
Some class attendees have started a conga line and all smugly smile at her as they pass. It's almost cult like/surreal and almost like an invitation. She stands there seemingly disoriented, the only person in the room not in motion or without a smile plastered across their soon to be sunburnt face.
We now find her sitting on the edge of a reclining chair pool-side with a large straw hat and dark sunglasses, the only one shielding themselves from the sun. She pushes up from her spot and walks towards the other end of the pool. The shot moves down her body with each step she takes, coming to focus on her feet and ankles until she passes Michael who is in the pool and swimming to the edge. The shot stays with him as she continues her walk. He makes it to the edge and props his arms up on the ledge just as his chorus kicks in. He puts on his glasses which he left sitting there and breaks the fourth wall i.e. he speaks directly to the camera while staying in the pool for the entirety of his verse. People semi-blurred in the background splash around happily as he speaks with nonchalance.
Come the end of his verse he glances up to his right and the shot follows that direction to find Alison having made it to the edge of the pool. She looks out into the distance, her back to all the activities going on around her. As the song reenters her chorus (she does not sing or acknowledge the camera ever), the shawl around her waist unwraps and is carried off into the breeze. She remains completely unphased. The shot follows the shawl as it twists in the wind until her sigh signals the next scene.
We now find her in the cabana bar, still wearing the hat and glasses even though indoors. Her posture is nothing to shout about as she takes her time with a drink at the bar. She swirls her straw around in it, turns around to face out onto the bar patrons who are throwing darts, laughing, adding their names to sign-up lists for various recreation. A man walks past, nodding his head at her as if attracted. Her response? No response. She swivels back around on the stool and focuses her attention back onto the drink.
Michael walks in through the cabana door, a door to her right at an angle. He takes a place beside her at the bar, raises his hand and extends two fingers to indicate a drink order and the bartender quickly serves him with a drink indicating he has a regular order. The bartender then places a receipt down beside the fancified scotch blend and produces a pen. Michael's verse starts. Michael turns his head to his left, which would be towards Alison and speaks directly to the camera for the duration of his verse. Once it ends, he downs the drink, turns his attention back to the receipt and notes his room number, signs and walks out of the bar. The shot follows him to the doorway and then pans to the dark of the cabana's ceiling.
When the shot comes down we now find ourselves in the midst of Alison's third chorus while on the beach at night. Her fellow resort goers are partaking in a rousing game of limbo, all swarmed around the limbo stick, laughing, holding drinks with mini umbrellas in them, accessorized with leis and some women with grass skirts looking every bit the stereotypical tourists.
She wanders slowly away from the group to find a place of her own - coming to sit alone on a piece of driftwood, removed from the group by several yards, an abandoned campfire in front of her, the wood still smoldering. She looks in the direction of the group, but its clear her thoughts are transporting her elsewhere as she contemplates the song's question - "how to get to be happiness" with a sigh. The shot then focuses on the faint trail of smoke rising from the charred logs, embers carried up into the night sky. Eventually the shot reaches the sky awash with stars.
Then the shot comes back down quickly and it's now Alison laying on the floor of her room back at home still in her day clothes looking as though she accidentally fell asleep after work while listening to a record. The colors of the scene are muted. An empty bottle of rum is beside her as well as a shot glass. She wakes long enough to reset the needle on the record player and then returns to sleep/her apparent misery (what with the mascara stains beneath her eyes). The shot follows her hand to the needle, then focuses on the vinyl record from above. Its shows the record gently spinning with enough detail to show the song is "Happiness," then widens to include her pathetic figure strewn beside it as well as a photo she clasps in her other hand of a soldier, presumably lost to war.
End.
Very 40's melodramatic. Almost noir. Campy noir... but with color. Was it a dream?
That Summer Breeze Gap commercial:
(Are you listening to the guitar chords that start at 3 seconds in? Now listen to the semi-bridge in "Happiness" starting at 3:23)
"Summer Breeze" lyrics - not that reading them ties into this in any way, shape or form...
Now are you ready for the real happiness as a video!?!?!!
I watched this about 40 times yesterday. It is the best thing EVER. Like the more you watch it, the more indoctrinated you become by it. I was crying by my third screening and laughing like Arthur just a few more times after that. You are cheating yourself of joy if you only watch it once. You seriously have to watch it - at the very least - ten times in a row. At 9 seconds long, how can you not?
I am dying for the comments over on Gawker about the video. They are must read material as are the comments over on MetaFilter, specifically THIS one.
Happiness.
Recent Comments