The first single of Jana’s released to radio to be upbeat
and sassy, ‘I Hope It Rains’ is a solid single that required an equally dynamic
video. This is what they have delivered; it’s certainly nice to see Jana having
a good time in a music video, and her camera technique is very good.
The video for ‘I Hope It Rains’ is built around a line in
the second verse of the song about a white wedding. The storyline shows Jana
infiltrating the wedding venue, wearing the bridal gown (plus sneakers) and
dancing around, then as the video progresses we begin to see a bit of trashing
the place, Taylor Swift/Miranda Lambert-style. Turning the aisle into a slip
slide with her band, taking the figurines off the wedding cake and knocking
over glasses on the tables as she tiptoes along them, this video had all the
makings of a fun revenge fest, but doesn’t quite deliver its full potential.
For a start, as is becoming a pattern for Jana’s videos,
there are a heck of a lot of ‘beauty shots’, and while she knows how to ‘make
love to the camera’ so to speak, with a cheeky grin on her face, it does get a
little tiresome. With lyrics as visual as those in ‘I Hope It Rains’, I wanted
storyline and lots of it, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. What storyline
there is in incredibly slow motion, dragging each moment out and culminating in
each act not being quite as destructive as you’d hoped. With a video like this,
that is obviously just a bit of fun, I want a bit more crazy than gently
knocking over a wine glass.
Having said that, the best part has to be where Jana dons a
helmet (that’s literally twice the size of her head), and her bandmates chuck
huge paintballs at her, in the stolen wedding dress of course. It feels a
little staged and set up, and a paintball fight in the venue itself would have
been more effective, but it’s still a great moment. The video concludes with
the actual happy couple turning up to find some of their chairs knocked over
(so?), and the husband-to-be fainting while his wife-to-be sobs. Not sure Jana
was that destructive other than to the dress, so it does fall a little flat,
but it relies on viewers’ previous experience of videos of this type, to
imagine what else Jana and her band may have done that has not been shown on
screen. A little presumptuous, perhaps.
The whole feel of this review has been pretty negative, and
I don’t mean to say that it’s a bad video by any means. It’s still fun, cheeky,
and Jana looks great as always. The fact that she was originally an actress
probably helps her ability here, but it’s still an achievement to come across
as she does.
Just one thing though: where’s the rain?
Posted by Vickye.
If you want to check out my own blog
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