Tim: This here by Swede Jasmine is a video intended to delight all; it will in fact annoy and delight in roughly equal measure, and I’m roughly 80% annoyed by it. Tom, you probably don’t want to watch this.
Tom: That feels like I’m watching someone’s terrible holiday video.
Tim: This is, I suppose, meant to be a happy song about making the world better, but my word is that an annoying video (filmed, would you believe it, entirely on Jasmine’s phone).
Tom: Oh. I am watching someone’s terrible holiday video.
Tim: There’s a whole load of bullshit in the YouTube description, about how everybody she asked how to make the world a better place answered “we need love”. Now, unless New York has changed enormously since I’ve been there, she’s telling massive lies about the number of people who told her to piss off, but never mind.
I’d like to stop focussing on the negative points of the video, like the OH SO ORIGINAL AND FUNNY ‘Free Hugs’ sign and the several times that John Lennon’s assassination crops up, because it’s a nice track, it really is. But, God, what an awful failure of a video, with the clip of the guy about to propose that cuts off as he gets to being on one knee, or the out of focus shots of people two feet in front of the camera.
Tom: And hey, if you’re going to stop people downloading it off YouTube, why not completely ruin the audio too?
Tim: “Everything we do, we do for love, and everything we see and feel comes from love.” Bloody hell.
Tom: It’s not a bad track, I guess — after a minute or so I just moved it to a background tab — but it’s a bit like candyfloss, all style no substance. I mean, it’s candyfloss sung by someone with a great voice, but… hm. That analogy got away from me.
Tim: Little bit. Never mind. Yes, the video’s a nice idea, but execute it properly, please, because the song is great, and I really really wish the video didn’t ruin it.