Tim: Remember I Should Have Followed You Home? And how I reckoned it was an upsetting and enormous waste of a potentially lovely narrative?
Tom: Oh heavens, yes. It was terrible. Is this… is this the same?
Tim: Well…
Tim: Yes, yes it is. It’s a sad song. A sad, really very sad, song, with some of the most depressing lyrics I’ve heard in a long time. “Oh, December, why am I so lonely?” She doesn’t even have a cat to talk to and ask about her loneliness, stuck instead singing at her calendar.
Tom: It’s odd, because the music could fit an optimistic track very well: it’s like we’re constantly stuck in the first verse.
Tim: Almost, yes, but except. Except. There’s the line “can you tell me it’s going to be alright”. Because that’s gives hope. Not much, admittedly, but there’s hope.
Tom: And I’m guessing you know how to fix it?
Tim: Well, duh. Here’s how I see it could have played, in the video: rather than sitting at a piano being lonely, and having absolutely nothing in her life, give her a backstory, something we can care about. A former lover. A soldier, to be precise, and she’s just found out he’s missing, and isn’t likely to come home. The first two verses make more sense – we know why she’s sad, we care for her, we share her grief. But then comes the middle eight. And some twinkly noises. And some feet walking through the snow. And a key change, and some slightly altered lyrics. AND THEN SHE SEES HIM AND IT’S A PERFECT CHRISTMAS BECAUSE THAT SORT OF THING HAPPENS AT CHRISTMAS AND WE CAN REVEL IN THE SHEER UNADULTERATED JOY OF IT ALL.
Tom: Right.
Tim: That’s what I want. Not this. Because even I Should Have Followed You Home is happier than this.