The great thing about music is that it’s a source of happiness - even if you’ve got no reason to be happy.
The nice thing about music is that it can make you feel happy, even if there’s no real reason to be happy. Just watching the music video “The City” gives you a summertime feeling. Patrick Wolf, the British multi-instrumentalist, transports us straight to the beach with wonderfully unpretentious and wistful images. Surrounded by beautiful people, he celebrates the lightness of being in summer. Forgotten are the cold city and its skyscrapers, the rat race and a life under pressure to succeed - shown in short sequences in between.
“Won’t let the city destroy our love,” according to the melancholy lyrics. The singer rejects the standard showpiece life in the fast lane – a successful career, expensive car and house: “It’s not about the debts you made, the car we never had.” Wake up! The sun is rising over Santa Monica beach. Patrick Wolf, in a fine fitted suit, strolls along the waterside in the early morning. In the background an amusement park on a pier can be seen, signifying fast fun and shallow moments of happiness.
The video clip is staged like a commercial from an American fashion label: perfectly styled youngsters laughing and dancing around the singer at his piano – that has been sunken into the beach. The song’s unambiguous message, in 80s synth-pop style is: Enjoy the simple life. Don’t let yourself or your feelings be led or manipulated by meaningless things. Good pop music allows for simple formulations.
Incidentally, “Lupercalia” is the fifth album from the young Brit, who’s been receiving critical acclaim for his musical mix of folk and electronic since 2003.
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