The new video for ‘Favourite Colour’ from Kent-based songwriter James Lloyd Smith channels the spirit of romantic movies. Delightfully tongue-in-cheek, the Dominic Sohail-directed video pokes fun at the myths and tropes of romantic love and relationships, as we follow Smith in a range of scenarios from heart-to-heart conversations to walks along the beach. Lyrically, the song is structured like a conversation between new lovers who are exploring one another’s interests – it’s witty and endearingly relatable. ‘Favourite Colour’ begins with simple, delicate, acoustic instrumentation, before building steadily with the addition of percussion, strings, banjo and trumpet, over which Smith’s conversational voice follows a sweetly memorable tune. The sound is bright and light, and the song is beautifully arranged. Described by Smith as a “…lo-fi affair,” the single was mostly recorded on his 2011 MacBook Pro in a small room and rehearsal space at college, showing what you can achieve with vision and talent.
Collectively, the video, melody and lyricism succeed in balancing wistful nostalgia and romantic cliches with reality, cynicism and the difficulty in meeting the expectations we set ourselves. Smith says of the song: “I was thinking about the romantic narratives and ideals that are fed to us in films, music and literature. How often reality doesn’t really match this, and you can end up feeling lost and behind in life as a result. How modern life with inflation and rising costs has paved a new kind of arrested development. We can watch films about twenty-somethings in the 90s living in big apartments in the city, having very romantic and wistful experiences while struggling to escape from the suburbs. ‘Favourite colour’ looks back on the stories we grew up believing — about love, timing, and who we were supposed to be. It’s a melodic reckoning about slow clarity that comes with growing up. I wanted the song to have a very economic structure, moving through different sections quickly, while having a lot of momentum and variation.”
This is a warm, playful song that will leave you smiling. Enjoy.
What a lovely song & video for a Friday !