New Release: Clean Bandit Featuring Zara Larsson - Symphony
Symphony (feat. Zara Larsson) - Clean Bandit |
Well, I wasn't expecting this when I chose my New Release music video review; to be fair, I wasn't expecting there to be one for this song. You have no idea how happy I am that Zara Larsson actually appears in this featured music video, especially after the disastrous "Girls Like" by Tinie Tempah. Yet, here she is, with Clean Bandit, as it should always be when there is a featured star. This song isn't really my sort of song, although it is highly emotional, I just don't think it's either of the artists' best song, and I think they could've created something much better; regardless, this is what we've got. Watch Clean Bandit perform as part of an orchestra, whilst Zara Larsson fronts it with the vocals, all the while a heart-breaking gay narrative plays out in the LGBT+ pro "Symphony" music video.
Clean Bandit are a trio consisting of Grace Chatto, Jack Patterson, and Luke Patterson. They are one of the most defining British electronic music groups around at the moment, with a tonne of hits behind them. They made their name known, when they collaborated with Jess Glynne on the song "Rather Be", the rest is pure history. The group will continue to dominate charts around the world. This new collaboration is with Zara Larsson, the Swedish female sensation who has released her international debut album this week. She gained fame when she won the second season of Talang, the Swedish version of Got Talent, in 2008. She gained success in collaboration with MNEK on the song "Never Forget You", which then launched "Lush Life" into international success. This song will, no doubt, storm the charts globally again. It was written by Jack Patterson, Ina Wroldsen, Steve McCutcheon, and Ammar Malik.
Directed by Grace Chatto & Jack Patterson, this music video is engaging from start to finish, much like Clean Bandit's other music videos. They are including in every video that they create, and considerably consider everything and how to properly represent their song in a visual aspect. It's admiring how much thought they put into it. The conductor is played by actor Michael Akinsulire, whilst the love-interest and cyclist are played by actor Josias Bertrand.
There are two parts of this music video, a narrative and a performance. The performance shows Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson at the front of an orchestra with Michael Akinsulire acting as the conductor. He takes up a lead role in the story, therefore linking the performance and the narrative together.
The performance piece isn't all that impressive. There's only so much an orchestra can give, along with a conductor. You would think Zara Larsson would channel her amazing performance vibes, but they're just not there. Clean Bandit brings their usual energetic vibe, but they're definitely lacking something. Maybe performing with an orchestra overwhelmed the performance aspect as a whole.
Regardless, the pro-LGBT+ narrative definitely makes up for whatever is not there in the performance scenes. We watch a cyclist, played by Josias Bertrand, have a traffic accident, that clearly leads to him passing away. We then watch a very upset Michael Akinsulire, grieving for his boyfriend. We watch scenes of them two together as if Michael Akinsulire is reminiscing over the lovely moments the gay couple shared.
These scenes are lovely to watch and we see how Michael Akinsulire goes on to become a conductor, channelling the upsetting energy into his passion. The ending scene sees Josias Bertrand sitting in the audience, watching the orchestra.
What a lovely music video. Once again, Clean Bandit has smashed it out of the arena; another great music video and a perfect one to follow on from "Rockabye" which featured Sean Paul & Anne-Marie; yet didn't quite top it. This is completely emotional and heart-breaking and inspiring, but it's all down to the narrative. Just wish the performance was to my liking to give this a full rating, but I can't justify it so it'll have to settle just short. Great video nonetheless, though.
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