Music video concept for "Atlantic" by Keane

I value most art (music, film, literature etcetera.) for its resonant quality. When a certain film or song sticks to your bones and fibrils then it is resonating with you. When you envision images or experience emotions when listening to a song, it is resonating with you…even after the distant first time. Every time Atlantic massages its way into my ears and into my mind, I experience the same shiver of the spine and numbing of the muscles. It is resonating with me each time, and I imagine it will always.

The strength of Atlantic's resonation lies in its ability to invoke images in my mind, which may or may not have any relation to the song lyrics themselves. It is by these images that I am inspired, impelled, to record and share them textually. Atlantic lends itself to the evocation of imagery because of its dynamic change in melody, which gives the song duality. We are introduced to a dilatory tempo and a lazy, somber and gray melody that transitions smoothly and immaculately (with a sudden departure from the drum beat and electric piano) into a bright and heavenly theme with softer, upbeat vocals and an electric piano that is higher in pitch and has the affect of silver bells. Because Atlantic possesses two dynamically different parts (dark and bright), it was natural for themes of contrast to develop as image concepts: Image concepts such as heaven and hell, black and white and temporal and spiritual.

Now, allow me to take you through the image that resonates with me when Atlantic sounds. I will use the lyric lines to pace the imagery along.

• When the music begins we see nothing but a muted, fuzzy miasma of white.
• Slowly this miasma becomes smaller as we move away from it and we begin to notice that we are peering into a droplet of water.
• We move away further to where we see the surface of the droplet.
• When the first drumbeat enters we see the reflection of a human man appear on the droplet.
• We turn around slowly 180 degrees and see the man in full. We now notice more clearly that he is in his thirties. He is wearing a trim and clean suit but with no necktie and his coat is unbuttoned.

The instrumental melody is still progressing, but the vocal lyrics have yet to enter.

• We turn back 180 degrees but instead of looking down at the water droplet we look forward and see a downtrodden city parted by a street.
• The man begins to walk into the city down the center of the street
• This city (perhaps Chicago-esque) is void of life. The images are in gray scale. It is a ghost town. Structures are chipped and rusty. The sky is gray and black. There is no sunlight. Everything is lit by some artificial source: the memory of sunlight.

Now the vocals come in… "I hope all my days will be lit by your face"

• The man continues his way down the street with no purpose or destination. He seems to be a lonely observer.
• We look to the left sidewalk and see the moving shadow of a male figure with a briefcase. Though we see a shadow, the actual person is absent.

"I hope all the years will hold tight our promises"

• We then see the moving shadow of a homeless person huddling over the shadow of a fire.

"I don't want to be old and sleep alone"

• We see a moving shadow of a person propelling himself down the sidewalk in a wheelchair.

"An empty house is not a home"

• We then scale the building behind the handicapped person and come to an open window. The ragged and decrepit curtains flanking the window hang lifelessly. We cannot see anything inside the window.

"I don't want to be old and feel afraid"

• Our attention is drawn back down to the street where we see five moving shadows of children playing stick ball in the street.

"I don't want to be old and sleep alone"

• Next to the shadows of children we see a real physical car (Broken down and conquered by rust) but we take further notice of a moving shadow of someone with a cap exiting the vehicle, passing through the rusted physical car door, but maneuvering a shadow car door.

"An empty house is not a home"

• We turn our attention to the right side of the street and see the moving shadows of a mother, father and daughter holding hands as they walk down the sidewalk.
• We then see three moving shadows of three adolescents on skateboards passing by.

"I don't want to be old and feel afraid"

• Now the man stops in the middle of the street and looks up at the sky. It is still gray and black. But we peer even deeper into the sky and see a faint glow of something behind the dark sky.

The melody begins to change

• The man, still looking up, closes his eyes and begins to grow in size. He grows to be the size of the buildings along the street. He grows more to where his foot is the size of the rusty car. He grows even more as his head now touches the low sky and his feet are crashing through the brittle buildings beneath him. He continues to grow to where he is standing on the earth. He grows larger still and his size begins to dwarf the sun and then the Milky Way itself.

Now we are being introduced to a new and different song… "And if I need anything at all"

• He is still looking up with his eyes closed. His hands are at his side. The man grows so large that he even dwarfs entire galaxy spirals and novas. And then, suddenly, his face touches a portion of space where it ripples like water and his face begins to submerse followed by his head.

"I need a place that's hidden in the deep"

• We are immediately transported to a place where we see the man's head emerge through thick, white, puffy clouds. When his face emerges, his eyes open. The rest of his body emerges but his clothes are gone, he is naked.

"Where lonely angels sing in your sleep"

• His hands emerge as well but they are holding onto other bare hands. The man fully emerges from the clouds, floating from them. In his hands he is holding the hands of other people, all naked like himself. In his right hand he is holding the hand of his teenage (16 year-old) self and his teenage self is holding his baby self in his right hand. In the man's left hand he is holding his 60 year-old self and his 60 year-old self is in turn holding his 90 year-old self.

"Though all the world is broken"

• The five versions of the man all notice each other and smile at one another. They float and bounce off of other layers of clouds.

"I need a place where I can make my bed"

• The five versions of the man continue to journey through this fanciful and bright realm and come across a group of people in the distance. The people are clothed. All these strangers are smiling and some are waving at the five versions of the man. The people are: a man with a briefcase, a homeless man, an elderly man in a wheelchair, five children with sticks and play balls, a policeman with a cap, a mother a father and a daughter and three older children with skateboards in hand.

"A lover's lap where I can lay my head"

• The collective group of clothed strangers are of different races. They all place their hands below their chins as if preparing to blow a kiss. Their cheeks puff out as they blow silently.
• We see the face of the man alone and we see his hair being moved by a breeze and he closes his eyes in enjoyment and sensation.

"Because now the room is spinning"

• Still close to his face, we see the man open his eyes. His eyes are glossy with moisture. He closes his eyes again and a tear forms at the edges of both his eyes. A single tear falls down his right cheek and we move in closer to the single tear. Still on his cheek, the tear is reflecting small sparkles of light.

"The day is beginning"

• We close in to the surface of the teardrop and we see more perfectly that the sparkles of reflected light are actually galaxy spirals and novas.
• We then travel deep and fast through the tear, which is actually a realm of a universe. Stars are streaking past us as we speed forward. Abruptly, we come to the planet Earth suspended in space.