After the top 10 single “Otherside”, the Co-Operative return with “Settle Down”. It’s a bitter kiss-off to a bad friendship, someone who “did my girl a favour”. Oh, one of those situations.
The video is a montage of old American educational films, specifically a medical film and a hunting safety film. The result is footage of two young men going hunting in a wintery landscape, cut with strange, ominous medical diagrams.
The two guys split up, one wearing a bright orange jacket, the other in a more subtle beige. This choice to dress in neutrals proves to be a fatal move. The orange jacket guy mistakes his beige friend for a deer (moose? elk? antelope?) and accidentally shoots him in the arm, then runs away and drives off in his car. Has he gone for medical help or is he just freaking out and leaving the scene of the crime?
A calming doctor appears at the end to remind viewers (via subtitles) that blood is thicker than water. Though, as we saw earlier, snow is thicker than blood. As well as illustrating the lyrical theme of friendship troubles, the video also serves as a reminder of the importance of wearing bright colourful clothing when out hunting. Unless, of course, you do actually intend to shoot your friend.
Best bit: the model of a torso with a flaming heart.
Next… a man in a bar.