Ship to Wreck - Music Video Analysis (The Odyssey Chapter 4)

Ship To Wreck

The Odyssey, Chapter 4 Analysis

Just to start with some general points; it’s clear now that the song “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” is pivotal to Florence. She’s said before in interviews; she wrote that song, had a huge relationship/life disaster between, and came back to the same song. This is reflected in the preview of the “HBHBHB” video, when Florence is dancing with herself, at one with herself, then she loops into the darkness of the cave, and back out to the openness again. That dark cave – that is the filling that we are seeing now in her videos. The storms, the torture...

“Ship to Wreck” begins with Florence in the rain. Once again, there’s a storm following her. She’s in the darkness, lonely, drenched.The video shows Florence as split. One side of her is trying to hold it together, and the other is wrecking it all. Florence said how “Ship to Wreck”was written about Florence’s self-destruction.

By the looks of things, this video is following a typical day in Florence’s head when she was off from song-writing and performing.

Passive, “holding it together” Florence wakes on the floor of her bedroom. It’s a mess; she’s not looking after herself. She’s wrecked her house (she said in interviews that she did this on her time off!). She goes into her bathroom, looking reflectively into the mirror, wondering who she is.She doesn’t seem too happy about what she sees, and shakes, as if trying to exorcise her thoughts away. She climbs into the bath, which is devoid of water, possibly symbolising how she’s trying to cleanse herself but doesn’t quite know how. Instead, she ends up lying there helplessly.

The camera pans to destructive Florence (maybe it’s her feelings that are being shown here), shaking her man, taking her frustration out on him.

Passive Florence then goes into her dressing room to get changed. She hides amongst her clothes. Destructive Florence, however, is using them as weapons; throwing them at her man in anger.

Passive Flo then goes downstairs, picks up a book, and attempts to read in her living room. She’s trying to stay peaceful, but her destructive side is pulling her and her man apart. Passive Florence tried to stop herself, but it doesn’t work. The destruction wins over.

Passive Flo has guests round for lunch/dinner. She’s trying to look calm in front of them, serving them food. However, her destruction gets in the way again. She’s on the table, ruining things. It shows how her relationships were not just affecting her badly, but also her friends and family around her. Florence’s dad, for example, looks shocked and taken aback by this destruction.

The two Florence’s then start fighting with each other(completely different from the HBHBHB teaser video), grappling at each other, trying to pull the other back. Florence ends up on the floor, back where she started. Her life is a constant battle to get somewhere, but she gets nowhere; trapped in this cycle of destruction. Depression is a dark place, and often feels like this – a cycle that is never ending, and no matter how hard you try, it just makes things worse.