Another Tide

It's been a topsy-turvy past few years, which have inspired Daniel to make this short animated film where he appears to primarily be encouraging himself to just "keep going." And this, in turn, is inspiring for the listener.

The animation flows easily, without much commotion, matching the tone of the music. The visuals include representations of the virus and other elements that are not entirely comprehensible. It flows, and there is a story being told; although it is not enirely clear what all of it is.

The lyrics and their delivery are a bit reminiscent of Leonard Cohen. They are delivered in a conversational tone that includes reinforcing poetic devices. But anyone can tell that it's all Daniel, true and determined. He describes his take on life at the moment for an easy going guy that sees the world from an outside perspective. There is no agenda. It's a dreamy, inspirational point of view.

It's one man's melancholy yet refreshing perspective. And it's one that is worth a watch and a listen when you want to take a step back and reflect on the current state of the world through a different lense.

I happened upon this music video at the filmmaker's space film festival. I noted that it had won several awards at other film festivals like to critics' choice film festival and the New York City independent film festival, so I was curious to experience it.

I must say I enjoyed this piece. It has a haunting, melodic beat that gradually draws you in and hangs around in your brain. Even later on through the day, I found myself clicking along with the beat and thinking about the lyrics. They speak to a different or deeper meaning, one that can easily be personalized by the listener. But no matter what message the listener derives from the music and the lyrics, it has a significant relevance to our daily lives and ongoing conflicts, both on personal and public level.

First of all, the song had a good intro. I thought it's set up the rest of the song well and the opening beat and rhythm seemed quite natural. There're no periods of awkwardness or breaks in the beat that take you out of the moment.

As mentioned, the vocals and lyrics provide a rich backdrop that mesh nicely with the music. They are clear and not encumbered by the beat in any way. I said it already but this tune can stay in your head for days. The words are very expressive and carry a boatload of meaning. In some music videos that I listened to recently, I found that the quality of the voice changes over the duration of the video, with the words becoming more screechy and irritating. This does not happen in this video. I found them fairly consistent all the way through. The natural rhythm of the lyrics was also consistent. They were deep and meaningful. Again, unlike other videos, they we're not offensive. They stayed on message without going over the line.

The rhythm of the music was solid and consistent. As I referenced earlier, it had a haunting beat that was subtle and yet steady. The arrangement was pleasing without a boring mechanical beat. The digital effects were not overbearing but rather blended into the work naturally.

The creative aspects of the video complemented the music and the slow pace of the animations rolling across the screen easily capture your attention. In other videos I've seen, there's a tendency for the digital effects to overwhelm the message or, at least, the music. Not in this case.

Speaking of the animation, one could easily discern meaning behind the individual items or assortment of items that are chosen for the video. As with the lyrics, every listener could easily personalize the meaning behind different parts of the animation.

The simplistic nature of the animations also struck a chord with me. As compared to other, busy videos, the message can be paired down to a simpler tone. Sometimes I wonder if all videos could be taken down a notch and reduced to its most common denominator, or most common message. If the purpose of videos is to convey an idea or message, then this would be the most effective way to do it. Not buried in glitz and/or glamor.

I found the length to the video to be just about right. The timing of the lyrics within the music focused my attention during the moment.

The question I often as about music videos is one of the music drives a video or the video drives music. In 'Another Tide', I found that they complement one another. Neither dominates and they both seem to share the spotlight equally.

Bottom line, I enjoyed this video and would recommend it.

Somewhere between collage and story, the video is more than merely visual stimulus to lull the eye while the ear listens yet does not relegate the music to soundtrack.

Taken individually, the music and video perhaps suggest a sadness but also have a rough vitality, so one could name this playful melancholy.

Whether the whole or separate parts embed themselves in the soul will depend on each individual's tastes; however, at 5 minutes of skilled work it does not ask a high price to find out.

The site wants me to write more but I'm not a music reviewer so I can't tell you about technical fiddlery or video wonkification. If you don't know my thoughts by now then nothing I can say will better convey them; if you don't know my other tastes then you have no baseline for my opinions anyway.