Ship To Wreck // Florence + The Machine
Music videos are a special piece of art, a piece I hope never goes away. They can be effective no matter how simple or low-budget (see Arctic Monkeys ‘Cornerstone’ or The Big Moon‘s ‘Nothing Without You’.) On the other hand, they can be used on a big stage to make a political stand (see Massive Attack using their headline set at Longitude 2014 to project a huge statement showing their opinion on the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict using backdrop screens to show footage and a message reading: “Gaza has been occupied or under restrictions since 1948.”
Musicians generally make an important choice when making a music video, it’s either going to be a) fun or b) serious. You can make your own judgement on what makes a fun music video but serious ones are generally used to send a message or raise awareness of an issue or past experience. This brings me on to a very powerful, symbolic music video, Florence + The Machine’s ‘Ship To Wreck’.
Starting with a bit of background then, Florence’s latest record How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful and the song of the same name are pivotal to her. She wrote songs in a good frame of mind, had relationship and life problems and then returned to finish the same songs in the negative frame of mind that followed. This is reflected in the record as a whole and the series of music videos she’s released since. Arguably the most powerful of which is the song she has since performed on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage and whilst kneeling in a puddle on Ellen (signifying the opening scene to the accompanying video) ‘Ship To Wreck’.
‘Ship to Wreck’ begins with Florence in the rain, there’s a storm following her. She’s alone in the darkness, which is taking over her every move. She’s split, one side is trying to hold it together, and the other is wrecking everything positive in sight. It’s clear that the song was written about her self-destruction, something that is such an important issue that almost everyone comes into contact with in their day-to-day life either passively or individually at some point. Ripping yourself up, page by page, taking yourself apart piece by piece, is not a pleasant experience and Florence is portraying her version of events in such a way so to shed light on what goes through ones mind in a situation like this and why it’s important to raise awareness of such issues using two people ‘passive Florence’ and ‘destructive Florence’ one hiding from the troubles, trying to put a brave face on and one just making everything worse.
Passive Florence then wakes on the floor of her bedroom. It’s a mess; she’s not looking after herself. She wanders into her bathroom, looking reflectively into the mirror, wondering who she is. She’s vividly disgusted at what she sees. The camera then pans to destructive Florence, shaking her man, taking her frustrations out on him. There’s then two quick fire scenes showing the two different sides of Florence one hiding amongst her clothes, one throwing them at her lover. Eventually her passive side picks up, smiling and looking as if the weight of the world has been lifted from her shoulders. Is this a happy ever after? Brutally no. Her dark side strikes again tearing her family apart, symbolising that depression doesn’t just go away if you put a happy face on, it’s a vicious cycle that bites again and again, hurting those around you in the process.
Strikingly brutal art. Florence Welch used the majestically put together video to ‘Ship To Wreck’ to open up about a dark period of her life, it’s heartbreakingly honest and scarily true. The message it carries however has reached almost 10 million people due to this video alone and that is simply amazing. Depression is not a laughing matter, it’s a dark place and this is a prime example of the ever-changing ways that music videos are being used to send a message and raise awareness about important issues that shouldn’t be thrust aside, as well as expanding on the often ambiguous song lyrics we make our own assumptions to on a daily basis