A-ha: There's Never a Forever Thing

This powerfully beautiful sad song and its official music video got into the most unusual of releases. It appears on the "Stay on These Roads" album in 1988, released as a single in 1989 but only in Brazil (where it is considered a hit of sorts) and only in 1991 that it got an artsy video inspired by the same theme as "R. E. M.: Talk About the Passion" and "Phil Collins: Another Day in Paradise" which is dealing with the homeless situation.

Sad and touching but without the idea of causing a massive shock, the video shot in black-and-white presents many homeless people and their tragic routine living in the streets of New York, either walking around collecting objects to sell or just observing people walk on by them. If poets can find beauty in misery or dire situations, so does filmmakers, and here the shots are amazingly well-photographed in spite of the bitter, the coldness and the sadness of it all. It's so good that for a moment it feels like staged and not real, but nope there's some documentary vibes to it.

Not sure if the song works exactly to fit with the imagery, since it feels more like a lullaby of someone comforting a child or a loved one during their sleep. Who would be the comforting eyes looking out for the poor homeless? Some charitable soul, maybe someone among their own crowd, or we the viewers? One could have such thoughts throughout the clip.

Another great exemplary video for A-Ha and one that needs to be rediscovered. 9/10.