In this blog post I will be analyzing the music video of Oliver Tree’s ”Let Me Down”. I will be discussing song and the video, how these two are connected and I will give my opinion on the music video.
The Song
Let Me Down is a quite a short song, with only an Intro, two short verses and the Chorus. Whilst it is a short song there is a lot of meaning in the lyrics. The song covers a lot of topics such as how his fans reacted when he announced the cancellation of his album, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The song starts with Oliver singing: ”Please don’t let me down, Please don’t let me down. You better come around” This is written from the perspective of his fans, he was shocked by the reaction of his fans when he announced that he was cancelling his album due to the Covid-19 pandemic (Tree, 2020).
In the first verse he sings about the social distancing and the six foot rule, If both parties keep their distance they can save themselves. And by listening to the rules from the government we can even save more people. At the end of the first verse he signs about not being around and that he has not been for a while. This refers to his retirement, He has said that this is the last song that he will record as ”Oliver Tree”. His last tour was supposed to be called Goodbye Farewell, but it was cancelled. (Tree, 2020).
The rest of the song is more from his fans perspective and how he feels like he is always being screwed over by things out of his control.
The subject discussed within the song are quite heavy, and you feel this whilst listening to the song too. Even though he is not saying any of the things directly you feel his struggle. Due to the emotional and topical subjects in the song the tone is quite sad.
The Video
With such a sad tone in the song one would expect the video to be dreary and sad, but as soon as the video opens you know this will not be the case. Oliver Tree’s appearance instantly puts a smile on your face. The oversized jeans and headphones look ridiculous. The way Oliver rolls into the shot with his scooter is so nonchalant that you do not expect the song that is about to start. But before the song starts, Oliver has some more things to put us in a good mood, the guy in the pink morphsuit that fails to slyly pick up the scooter, and the massive sandwich that Oliver pulls out of his pocket just set the tone of the video.
After we get some nice sandwich eating A.S.M.R we finally get to the song, As Oliver starts to sing he just stands there emotionless. The camera is static and just shows him standing. We cut to a medium shot of Oliver as he gets further into the intro, but the microphone starts to move away from him.
If I were to speculate on the reason why the microphone is moving away, I would guess it is symbolic for his fans not wanting to listen to his message. Oliver keeps following the microphone because he feels that he should share his thoughts.
The microphone keeps doing this for a bit until it starts going up in the air. The pink morphsuit man comes in to give Oliver a ladder. Oliver is allowed to sing into the microphone for a bit and he shows how happy he is with this accomplishment. But soon the microphone starts to move up again this time out of Olivers reach. As Oliver climbs down the ladder we hear laughter in the song, I would guess this should symbolise some of his fans who are happy that they can pretend that nothing is changing and that Oliver cannot voice his thoughts. But in a spectacular twist Oliver reaches into his breast pocket and pulls out a toy microphone, showing that he will always find a way to voice his thoughts and opinions.
The video goes on like this for a bit, until the pink morphsuit man walks in with a baby stroller, in the stroller is a baby doll that looks like Oliver. At this point in the song he is singing about how his fans have seen that he is someone else, and that they have seen him turn into someone else. Oliver looks at the doll and kicks it away. This is clearly to say that this person his fans saw is not there anymore, this is just who he is and they have to deal with it. Oliver continues to sing into the toy microphone for a while until a chain lowers from the ceiling, with a toilet handle attached to it. He pulls on the chain and nothing happens for a while, he looks at the camera with confusion and shrugs his shoulders. We hear thunder and rain starts to fall down. The song continues with the laughter from before. The pink morphsuit guy walks in with an umbrella for Oliver, he grabs the umbrella and shoves the pink morphsuit guy onto the ground. Oliver looks very mad. He ends the song with saying that he ”won’t come around”. He looks at the camera with a weird smile and the studio around him starts to fall apart. Oliver runs into the background and the camera pulls out revealing that the crew of the music video are all pink morphsuit people.
My opinion
I honestly think this is a very creative and fun music video, we have seen plenty of pure studio music videos, but most of them are not able to tell a story. The combination and juxtaposition between video and song are really well thought out, it combines a sad song with a what looks like a happy music video at first glance. The further we get into the video the more the song and video meet each other, Oliver starts to show the issues he is facing with his fans more directly. I think that the pink morphsuit people are a fun extra, but it is not very necessary. There is a possibility that the morphsuit gang is supposed to represent his fanbase, because it seems that they are in control of it all. Also this is a great way to shoot a music video in a time where we have to adhere to social distancing rules. Oliver is not in direct contact with anyone because they are all wearing morphsuits.
The music video is a silly but intelligent product that shows the struggle an artist can have.
References
Tree, O., 2020. Oliver Tree- Let Me Down [Official Music Video]. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxG-7AsbjeI> [Accessed 1 June 2020].
Tree, O., 2020. Let Me Down. [online] Genius.com. Available at: <https://genius.com/Oliver-tree-let-me-down-lyrics> [Accessed 1 June 2020].
Tree, O., 2020. Let Me Down. [online] Genius.com. Available at: <https://genius.com/Oliver-tree-let-me-down-lyrics> [Accessed 1 June 2020].
Tree, O., 2020. Oliver Tree- Let Me Down [Official Music Video]. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxG-7AsbjeI> [Accessed 1 June 2020].