The Decemberists have released a poignant and hopeful video for their song “Once In My Life” from their latest album I’ll Be Your Girl. The band teamed up with frequent collaborator and famed rock photographer Autumn De Wilde to create a “love letter” to her brother Jacob, who is 7’2 and living with Auditory Processing Disorder. Lead singer Colin Meloy took to the idea quickly empathizing as his son Hank, who is autistic, is constantly the subject of people’s stares. He said in a statement “the song, in this light, becomes more than just a ‘celebration of sadness,’ (which I have sometimes called it) but suddenly a longing holler to the universe against one’s perceived otherness.”
The video opens with a monologue by Jacob reflecting on the way people who are “different” are constantly othered as he sits in a diner while people laugh and stare. The lowly guitar starts and he begins to dance across Los Angeles to the synth-folk ballad picking up a few partners along the way. The Decemberists are currently on the North American leg of their world tour. Watch the video below.
