Keane - Crystal Ball

What this video is

Released in August 2006 during Keane's second album cycle, 'Crystal Ball' arrived at a moment when UK post-Britpop acts were pushing music video storytelling toward short-film ambition. The video's Twilight Zone-inspired identity-loss narrative — a man erased from his own life — visually externalizes the album's lyrical preoccupation with numbness, disconnection, and existential fading, themes Tim Rice-Oxley…

Why it matters

A landmark example of early-2000s UK piano rock music video craft, 'Crystal Ball' represents the genre's ambition to transcend promotional clip conventions. Its dual-version release strategy — one for UK chart consumption, one repurposed for the US market — was an early instance of…

The director

Italian director born 1 January 1968 in Corinaldo, Marche, Italy. Studied philosophy at Statale University in Milan before beginning his directing career at age 23 with music videos and commercials. Gained international recognition directing videos for Skunk…