Vance Joy- "Riptide"

 



I really like the song ‘Riptide’ by Vance Joy, at the moment, so decided to look at his music video (above).

Vance Joy is an Australian singer-songwriter (real name: James Keogh). ‘Riptide’ is from his debut EP ‘God Loves You When You’re Dancing’, and was directed by Dimitri Basil.

The song is driven by an up-beat, ukulele sound which is juxtaposed to the darkening/ deteriorating music video which is somewhat frightening towards the end. The lyrics appear to be some coming of age love story, however, it is hard to tell, other interpretations of the song and video are rape and a breakup.

The lyrics and the video are very open for their own interpretation. When I first heard the song I presumed it was a love story, but after watching the music video and thinking more in depth, I think it depicts the break up between a woman who no longer loves him. Especially on the line "I love you when you're singing that song and I got a lump in my throat cos you’re going to sing the words wrong", it appears although he is telling her he loves her she cannot say it back.

The video takes a very literal approach to portray the lyrics. Lots of clips are combined in order to show each line, for example: on the line “Lady, running down to the riptide” in the chorus, a lady running is shown every time (e.g. 0.40). I have read people comments from the video; some said they hated how literal it was and is was “shallow”, without depth. However, I have to disagree, I think it’s really clever and love the way it so open for interpretation. I hope to create this in my music video.