The singer/songwriter has taken over pop music. The likes of Hozier, Ed Sheeran, and Vance Joy dominate the charts and radio play. Out of this trend rose James Bay, an English artist with a knack for catching his listeners at their weakest–hit singles “Let It Go” and “Hold Back the River” are the kind of songs that make you want to fall in love. Fittingly enough, his newest music video is for “If You Ever Want to Be in Love,” another track off his debut album Chaos and the Calm.
Filmed in The Fiddler’s Elbow, a self-described “legendary music venue” in Camden, England, Bay’s new video combines studio quality recording with snippets of his live show. It’s two videos for the price of one, since the bridge is replaced with actual audio from the live performance and the last 45 seconds consists of the audience singing the chorus back at Bay, as though it was designed to only be a live session production. In all honesty, I believed it was one for most of the beginning.
Visually, it’s simply a performance-based video, with Bay and his touring band performing the song underneath Fiddler’s iconic arch of vinyl records. The room is flooded with a gorgeous yellow light, and combinations of slow-motion manipulations and lens flares make its visual aesthetics as captivating as its audio. The best part of the video, however, is inarguably the apparent joy on Bay’s face throughout. He’s clearly having the time of his life performing for what, in comparison to the massive festival crowds attending his most recent shows, is an insignificant number of fans. It’s evident in “If You Ever Want to Be in Love” that Bay’s career isn’t about fame, or record sales—he’s in it for his pure love and passion for music.
Featured Image By Republic Records
