By: Melissa Abi Jaoude
Following its hit single “Safe and Sound,” Capital Cities released the lyric video for “One Minute More,” another song off its debut album, this past Monday. Keeping true to its quirky vibe, the singing duo paired the short song with a colorful video, delivering the lyrics in a way that seems like an animated, illustrated storybook-even a paper puppet show. Set to a vibrant blue background, a variety of images dance across the screen. Committing to the song’s lyric, “this life is an exploration,” the video represents many of the typical ideas associated with exploration and the frontiers. The clip repeatedly shows images of the moon, planets, and astronauts, adding stars to the background to give a feeling of outer space. In time, these stars convert into bubbles, and a rather majestic- winged whale and an octopus enter the frame, giving an open ocean feel. Tigers, kangaroos, and elephants make several appearances, a clear nod to the terrestrial frontiers. It is interesting that the producers chose such a dark background, considering the constant repetition of “the sun does shine,” by the singers.
Aesthetically, the video comes together very well. While the project sticks to one color pallet-using shades of orange, blue, and green-the vibrancy of these colors is absolutely beautiful. Many other lyric videos that try to get creative in presentation sacrifice the clarity of the words, compromising the lyrical approach for the visual. This technique can work well, but it also largely defeats the purpose of these video. This video, however, manages to successfully deliver an attractive video, while keeping the lyrics “safe and sound.”
