Florence + The Machine recently announced that new album How Big How Blue How Beautiful is slated for a June release. Florence also recently premiered two new songs in London “Third Eye” and “St. Jude,” The latter of which the group released the visual for today
The video starts out with birds flying over head, which turns out to be a recurring theme.
A woman rises in the woods topless with open arms as the camera pans to focus on a house within the setting. At the foot of the house a spiral rock structure is highlighted. It is raining inside the house, and as the song begins Florence appears limp in a man’s arms. The man guides her to the floor, and the two are about to embrace when he turns around to leave.
Florence walks outside to a darkened evening sky. The darker scenery accents the mood of the song as a more melancholy piece. Florence slowly makes her way through the village, and she passes children with open arms. It seems as if she is looking for some form of embrace at all times. Within all of her actions the basic component of someone on the receiving end of her gazes or touches leaves. As the song’s instrumentation picks up, which heightens the emotional intensity, she stops to look at a woman kneeling in front of a church as men carrying stones walk out. Florence then appears limp in the same man’s arms. As she regains her footing, she shares a sequence of embraces with the man, but he exits the picture again.
Still wandering down the path, Florence comes into contact with a man traveling with a stack of wood on his back. The man asks, “Why are you traveling alone? Are you lost?” The song fades out, and she walks into the middle of a field and collapses. The birds from earlier have now moved to this part of the sky and form a circle, among other possible shapes, but what the circle might represent is hell. The direction for the video is set to take place in the first layer of hell, so the birds among the other events happening to Florence could possibly be the chaos she sings about loving within the lyrics.
The video does show a vision to love that is directly related to pain. Florence is seen limp and distraught throughout the video. Her spirit is weakened and her confusion is then shown as an outward reflection on the world around her. The love she has for this man who continues to sweep her off her feet is not enough, as he leaves her twice. In the end as she lies in the middle of a field, and the birds fly away in a beautiful motion. Watch the complex visual for “St. Jude” by Florence + The Machine.
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