“When I Return” is a very loving and very cool song, but Shapeshifter seem to have really missed the opportunity to make a great video. Instead we see Ladi6 blobbing out in her tracky dacks, looking through a scrapbook filled with mementos of life on the road with Shapeshifter.
Along with the ticket for the gig at Phat Club in Nelson, various photos in the scrapbook turn into video, revealing clips of Shapeshifter on tour. And it’s all very generic. Loads of bands have fun when they’re on tour and do crazy things for the camera, but there’s nothing about it that stands out as particularly remarkable. Oh, there’s one of the band trying to stand up in the back of a moving van. That’s nice.
But maybe Shapeshifter can get away with making a really lacklustre video because they are – and this song especially is – so beloved. YouTube commenter Davidbigsexy says “good to see the clips from the early days were the boys are in the back of the van on the floor just having epic times”. So maybe the video is just a treat for Shapeshifter fans – they don’t need to be sold on the song (they already love it) so instead here’s the band mucking around on tour.
Best bit: Ladi6’s henna hand tattoo.
Next… a dirty old spring clean.
from memory, I think there were constraints around the video shoot due to Ladi 6’s pregnancy (hence the trackies)
Ah, that makes a lot of sense. A contrast from Anna Coddington’s knocked-upness in her video for “The Runner”.