[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/14630186[/vimeo]
Released 3 April 1995.
The entirety of the music video is filmed in black and white. This creates an atmosphere of mystery and anonymity as well as causing the exterior shots of the bus to contrast strongly with well lit interior shorts of the band performing.
There are both performance and narrative elements to the video. The performance takes place primarily on the bus and features strong lighting and numerous close ups of the artists. One of the characteristics of music videos that Andrew Goodwin identified was that there is a demand on the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist or vocalist. The narrative aspect of the video establishes several characters of which we see frequent close up shots. Primarily we follow the journey of Keeley Hawes’s character from sitting on the roadside, obviously upset, to boarding the bus and being comforted. This narrative combined with the performance on the bus represents that band as being fun and freedom enabling.
[spoiler name=”Lyrics”]Oh, you’re hard to fit
But you’re fit to drop
Open up the window and jump into the blue
Things could be marvellous
Things could be fabulous
You need a push
I’ll push you off
Open up the window and jump into the blue
Things could be marvellous
Soon
Oh, well these are the days
And this is the life
There’ll always be something on your mind
You’ll never quite find
Won’t you ever make your mind up?
Oh, you’re here to hit
‘Til you hit the top
Open up the window and jump into the blue
Things could be marvellous
Things could be fabulous
Soon
Oh, well these are the days
And this is the life
There’ll always be something on your mind
You’ll never quite find
Won’t you ever make your mind up?
Now, you’ll never be sure
If this is the time
If this is the moment, the end of the line
You’ll never decide
You used to know but now you’ve forgotten
You sit there and wait for the phone to ring
When are they gonna call?
Are they ever gonna call you at all?
But then, oh
Things could be marvellous
Things could be fabulous
Soon
Oh, well these are the days
And this is the life
There’ll always be something on your mind
You’ll never quite find
Won’t you ever make your mind up?
Now, you’ll never be sure
If this is the time
If this is the moment, the end of the line
You’ll never decide
You used to know but now you’ve forgotten
A submarine got stuck to the bottom
These are the days so wake up
‘Cos this is the time
And you know I’m right[/spoiler]
(Source: maherr’s Music Video Analysis presentation, my video upload, Tumblr user lidia for spotting Keeley Hawes in the music video)