Seven Times video...

[MerseyExile]

Oh dear. Things really are going from bad to worse.

[Fatalist]

WTF x2

All a bit Marcel Marceau to me

Looks like a video for the Cure offshoot the Glove wasn't it?

My kids might like it - will test that theory tomorrow breakfast time

[cthulhu]

Arthur Dent
I like the man on the vespa, he's groovy. and i like the part: "i have a friend on the other side..." i think that's funny

[DannySan]

I watched it. Strange one 

[purplehaze]

i must be thick or something i just dont get it i thought it was a joke, when i listen to that song, these are not the images im thinking of and thats for sure.

[huwcamden]

Oh my ******* god, i've only just seen that video and i guess the plan was to do something really "not rockband in a roomish too," well that has certainly been achieved, but unfortuantely it does not fit the song or in particular justins emotive and always serious voice, i think everyone involved must have either been stoned having just watched back to back episodes of the mighty boosch or are setting us "fans" up in some sort of spinal tap meets dom joly type scenario, i know nma like too be talked and argued about and i feel a bit of a sucker to be drawn into that but this video (even for one of there lightest, cheeriest tracks) is just wrong,wrong,wrong.

[citymike]

I just don't get WTF is going on... does the video have any relevance to the song???

[lfran]

It looks to me that some people connected with the band decided to have some fun. Lighten up. Do we have to take everything so damn seriously all the time? 

[huwcamden]

Having fun and not being serious is something i do to much of everyday but a "comedy video" has to fit a "comedy song" ie  baggy trousers by madness or i believe in a thing called love by the darkness, i struggle to think of a comedy nma track, perhaps chinese whispers, but seven times is simply not that funny and the accompanianing video non sensical.

[cthulhu]

video killed the radio star....

well, as i already mentioned i can understand that some people don't like the video for some obvious reasons or whatever personal reason they have. i just don't agree about argueing and trying to find arguments why the video is not ok. this is just a matter of opinion. first rule is there are no rules!

the first viewing for me was definately a big surprise and total contrary to the subconscious expectations i had 'cause of the pictures in my head while listening to that song. but it was an immediate smile-bringer and sympathetic grinproducer and i was caught by the balls they have, to just do it that "home-made" style. was nma not always about family and relationships? strange ones...

and for those who don't see any connections to the song, a little interpretation by me:

there's a man beginning a journey, checking his vespa. he starts in france, maybe his father's land. he looks like a pal from the 60's students revolution. he starts his journey and all of a sudden a change, 'cause little spiderman kicks ass! then there's the sun and then you see the rain, and together with lightning they encircle the man. he's grinning and you see that they feel good, it's playful.

the song is about living, about good and bad times but mostly about celebrating life and the journey. children are the most important part of life, to care about them, to play with them, to give them space and a future. we were all children and the fists you made they come bashing at your door. stonehenge has an nma imprint on it. the man leaves his vespa to an insisting teen and batgirl rules the streets. artur dent appears and with the right answer 42 joins the man on the vespa. darth vader makes it darker and threatens the man on the vespa. they fight a hard and epic battle for the man's hat, but the man on the vespa has to loose it to darth vader, while planets fly through the universe....tequila!

the rest you have to figure out for yourselfs..;-)



oh, come on! all the action in the video is so filled with joy and fun and irony and lightness. it's not a funny video in the sense of jokes, it's funny in the sense of enjoying and celebrating. it's not about laughing, it's about smiling.

[Shush]

What ever an NMA video should be like, this one feels like a bit of fun. That can surely never be a bad thing ??

[huwcamden]

sorry cthulhu,reasoned arguments and im glad you like it, but "first rule is there are no rules" is great in art school and has created some great vids i guess but as a longtime nma fan i want stuff that reflects the power and energy and emotion of the band not some silly,jokey,pastiche wank.

[cthulhu]

well, it seems that some people are almost angry about the video, and i somehow can understand that emotion from a distance. it's like the first feelings and confusion the first seconds of seeing it and then letting go seeing and just watching and by that somehow transforming.

i don't want to argue about the video on the production level, but i like to talk about what i experience through it. maybe some critics could try to explain on a feelings level, why they are disappointed or angry. that would be interesting.

to me, the whole bdaw experience was kind of a coloured thing, to which the design and art of the album where mixing in with the pictures evolving in my head while listening. there was a certain warm thickness, slow deepness...whatever. what i'm trying to say is, that the video crashed alomst immediately all of it.
at first there was crashing, disorientation, "what the **** does it mean?" "what do they want to tell me with that?", but also immediately i was taken on a journey and just had to smile about what i saw, with all the questions still there but not so important anymore. i think what happened, was a transformation of watching the vid on an more intellectual level and then changing to just go emotional. no explaining of the symbols, meanings, interpretation, just immediate sense and wonder.

i treally transfomed my reflection of the song and changed the colour and tone a bit, and at first i feeled almost betrayed. it's like people say they don't want to see the movie to the book they've read. and "what has been seen cannot be unseen!!!!"
but now i've good an addition to my interpretation and it made the experience stronger. becaus to me it fits perfectly. it fits my expectations of nma. that i so often just have to become aware that i have expectations that i didn't notice before.

and if i would argue about the video, and would feel attacked by words like silly, stupid, childish, i would say: how can you not like to watch children playing and having fun, and why can you not smile about people with grins in their face, holding drinks while surfing the big wave, how stubborn and boring you must be, you must be dead already.

but i would never say that!!

*augenzwinker*

[Alicat]

My instinctive reaction was a definite WTF? moment when I first saw this video, in fact I disliked it so much that I didn't even make it all the way through, and at that time would have had to agree with what others have already said about it rather spoiling their experience of listening to this song.

But as I've watched this thread develop, I went back and watched the video through a few times and it's kind of grown on me- and this is from someone who generally doesn't like anything featuring kids too much!!- so I'm coming down on the side of Ifran, who said:

It looks to me that some people connected with the band decided to have some fun. Lighten up. Do we have to take everything so damn seriously all the time? 

Yes, personally I probably would still have prefered what most of us would no doubt class a more 'typical' NMA approach, more serious in tone, but I guess it IS good to see a lighter side to the band too! And although it has now changed how I perceive that track I don't think it's necessarily for the worse, just different

[Semmelnknödöln]

Love it.

And the grumpy responses just deepen my appreciation for it

Seriously people... totally with cthulhu. Independent from whether you like this kinda thing or not... is it that hard to appreciate that a group of artists around the band can have some fun and grow above themselves with a light-hearted, unexpected spill of creativity? I'll never understand how one can throw any anger at any piece of art... don't like it, shut the F up and let others enjoy the moment.. it'll come back around How boring a world where everything is predictable and likeable....

If this was the clip for, say, Ghosts.... I'd see some of the points taken in this thread, but regarding 7 times, it absolutely reflects at least "one way"* of living through the song.

*Even if not "your own" for better or worse.