Jessie Ware has released a short-film music video for her song “Remember Where You Are,” starring lookalike Gemma Arterton.
“Remember Where You Are,” the last track on the English singer-songwriters critically acclaimed album What’s Your Pleasure? is a stark contrast to the rest of the disco/dance album, wrought with sex, desire, temptation, and dancing with strangers.
The slower, bittersweet track takes an even deeper meaning with the video, filmed during the evening and dawn of Valentine’s Day in the desolate streets of a locked-down London. Ware and Arterton “developed the video concept as a love letter” to the empty city, according to a statement.
As Arterton walks through the streets, her eyes well up with tears looking at the empty storefronts. The sinking feeling evoked is one that has become all too familiar as we reach the one-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The sense of longing paired with remembering what was, carries a message of holding onto hope that once was, will be again.
At the bridge of the song, Arterton’s demeanor changes as she walks up a hill. A sliver of sunrise is behind her. Forwards, darkness.
Reaching the top of the hill, Arterton turns around to see the sun rising over London. Tears still in her eyes, a smile fills her face as Ware and a choir of voices sing the lyrics “can we keep loving on the edge of doubt,” and “nothing is different in my arms, so darling remember (remember) where you are.”
Ware’s lyrical masterism and conceptual video serve as a strong reminder to hold on for brighter days and a more hopeful future.