Julia Michaels stripped down her song “What a Time” ft. Niall Horan for an acoustic glimpse at the reminiscent track. The video, like the song, is simple, but simultaneously long and boring. It only gives the viewer two landscapes to watch. The first shows Michaels and Horan sitting in leather chairs singing the song. Both of them are dressed casually, as they sit in an empty room in front of a white curtain. The video flips between this and beautiful imagery of mountains underneath a colorful and vibrant sunset. Without a doubt, all of this is pleasant scenery. But the video is over three minutes long, and that’s all the viewer has to rest their eyes on—it’s the type of video you watch the first minute of, and then close out immediately because of just how dull it is.
The beautiful sunsets are a nice contrast to the simplicity of the room where Michaels and Horan are sitting, however they don’t provide much motion. The video is in desperate need of a little more action—mixing in more people would surely make the video more engaging. Instead, it falls flat on the screen and looks like it was made by high schoolers on iMovie.
The song itself is not bad, but extremely repetitive. The lyrics are reminiscent of good times in the past that you will never get back. It’s not a sad song, though—Michaels sings of these memories fondly as she brings them up one by one. The repetitive nature of the song made the video drag on for hours. “What a Time” works as a pop song, but the lyrics don’t match the slower nature of an acoustic ballad.
The acoustic version of “What a Time” did not need a video. Since the original song already had a video, which incorporated more of a storyline, there was nothing left for this video to portray on a visual level. While watching Niall Horan strum a guitar for three minutes isn’t a bad sight, there are definitely better uses of your time.
Featured Image by Republic Records
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