Breezeblocks Analysis

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∆, pronounced Alt + J, had their music video debut with the song Breezeblocks which highlights the artistic and complex image the band has established. Their name alone is a symbol, introducing the audience to their ambiguity and mystique. This image is heavily mirrored in their music video for Breezeblocks. The video can be extremely confusing being that its main stylistic element is that the entire video is backwards. This is done for a variety of reasons that will be further examined in this analysis. The band originated in Leeds, England and is considered to perform indie rock, art rock, folk rock, folktronica, and experimental rock. The members include Gwil Sainisbury, Joe Newman, Gus Unger-Hamilton, and Thom Green (About Alt-J). The bands …show more content…

There is nothing done to establish a motive, leaving the scene very open ended. To start, the video is backwards, and watching it backwards and forwards establishes different stories and perspectives. The opening scene flashes between frames highlighting the dead woman’s hand and the male’s hand bearing a wedding ring. The man is grieving with his face in his hands. This happens while the lyrics are saying “my love, my love, my love, love, love. ” leading the audience to believe that they are lovers and he is mourning her loss. However, the next events are shown in a manner that leads the audience to believe that an aggressive murder has taken place, where an unnamed woman is violently attacked by a male aggressor, and eventually drowned with a breezeblock. It is not until the end of the video that you are introduced to another woman who is taped and tied up hidden in a closet. The video highlights that she is also wearing a wedding band, leading the audience to now believe the other woman involved in the brutal fight is just that – “the other woman”. This changes the believed dynamic of it being an aggressive domestic dispute between husband and wife to being that of a husband trying to protect his wife from a possible deranged, psychotic, or just seriously upset ex-partner, mistress, or stalker. This makes the audience see that he murdered her in self-defense. However, this explanation does not account for a few critical elements: At the end of the fight, or beginning of the video, the other woman is now running terrified and has accepted her defeat by running from the man and into the bathroom, wherein the beginning of the fight and end of the video she initially maintained the power. It does not explain his look of disappointment, stress, and anxiety after committing the murder, instead of going to check on his wife who had been discovered tied and taped in a

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