Starsailor - Silence Is Easy

What this video is

Released in 2003 as the lead single from Starsailor's second album, 'Silence Is Easy' arrived at a pivotal moment in UK alternative music when post-Britpop acts were asserting emotional and orchestral ambition against the rising tide of garage rock. The album was produced in part by Phil Spector — among his final productions before his 2009 imprisonment — lending the title track a 'wall of sound' grandeur that the…

Why it matters

A landmark entry in early-2000s post-Britpop music video grammar, 'Silence Is Easy' extends the social-realist crowd-immersion format popularised in 1990s UK promo culture into a more emotionally dense, theatrically staged form. The rapid intercutting of diverse crowd reactions against a stoic…

The director

Pedro Romhanyi began directing music videos at London Records in 1987 and became one of the UK's most prolific promo directors, shooting videos for Paul Weller, Pet Shop Boys, Manic Street Preachers, Pulp ('Common People', 'Disco 2000'), Blur ('Parklife'),…