Video of the week: Nice Weather For Ducks

Warning! You will hate this song, but it will lodge itself in your mind like an unwanted house guest, or one of those creatures that sucks your brains out in that movie with the aliens. You will be singing it as you go to Greggs for a sausage roll this lunchtime. By the end of the weekend, you will have bought it on iTunes. At your wedding, you'll request it as the first dance. And when you die, you will have it as your epitaph. It is that catchy.

The song is Nice Weather For Ducks by UK dance act Lemon Jelly. It seems appropriate to choose it this week as the UK turns into one giant puddle.

Based around a sample from a nursery rhyme, the song is features an explosion of folk guitar, dance synths and funk trumpet. It literally sounds like nothing else on earth - as long as you discount the rest of Lemon Jelly's songs.

The video bravely attempts to recreate the psychedlic soundclash of the song, and makes a rather fine job of it. A mixture of live action and cartoons, it recalls the trippy animation of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine - but, thankfully, this is a full 85 minutes shorter.

It's the only music promo ever to be directed by Nigel Pay, whose day-job is creating adverts for the likes of Tesco and Fairy Liquid. Perhaps because he's been freed of the 30-second contraints of TV work, the video communicates the unabashed joy of the song perfectly.

Other noteworthy things about the clip:

Groundbreaking animation technique! A bit like the rotoscoping thing they've done to Keanu Reeves in his new film. The flying sequence is a bit patchy, though.

It has a social conscience! The song is sung by a tramp, thus demonstrating how we need to consider the plight of the homeless in a society where the divide between rich and poor has never been greater.

Retro! It's, like, totally based on the opening titles to kids' TV programme Rainbow. That tramp could even be Jeffrey.

Dancing ducks! Dancing ducks, for fuck's sake!

Watch it below, then sing it randomly 'til the day you die. You have been warned.

Buy the DVD from Amazon

See more of Director Nigel Pay's work at the Tandem Films website

Tweet