Set The Fire To The Third Bar

     This weekend I was hanging out with my friend in her room. We were talking and listening to her very vast music collection. The song Set The Fire To The Third Bar came on and I realized I had heard it before, like it, but had never known the title of it to be able to look it up. I asked my friend what the title of the song was and I have been listening to it since. I checked out the music video and felt it does an amazing job at enhancing the emotions of sadness and longing expressed in the song.

The video starts out with two different rooms, one black and one white. There is a woman in the black room and a man in the white room, however both are wearing the color black. Already you can tell strong choices have been made based on the simple but definite colors; the artists want you to know that these are two very separate rooms. There is a one-way glass mirror in between the two rooms. The woman is able to see the man throughout the song, but he is not able to see her. Also, she is occasionally in his room as well as her own, but she seems slightly opaque when she is in her room, as if she is not truly there.
     The song is describing the pain of losing someone you love. More specifically, the pain of knowing that you will never be able to be with them again. In this case, the woman is in the black room (to symbolize her being dead) and the man is in the white room (to show he is still alive). Both the man and the woman are wearing black, demonstrating that their both mourning the loss of the one that they love. The entire video expresses the struggle that neither of them can be with the other. The one-way glass is the most obvious display of that. A very powerful moment in the video is when they are both looking into it; the man is longing to see her again and the woman is yearning to be seen by him. Their hands and faces are so close, but can never truly touch because of the glass. Furthermore, there is a time when the man is trying to touch her fingers on the table, but they are just beyond reach. And later, the woman is standing next to the man but he never turns and looks her in her direction. All these instances demonstrate their need and also inability to be together. The irony of the lyrics is interesting as well. They say "I'm miles from where you are", yet technically their rooms are adjacent to one another. They are separated only by the extreme difference of life and death. Finally at the end of the video, the woman walks out of her room. This is showing how she is letting go of him, so that he can move on with his life.
     Overall, it is a beautifully sad song that anyone who has lost a loved one can relate to.
Here is a link for a full view of the lyrics: http://www.metrolyrics.com/set-the-fire-to-the-third-bar-lyrics-snow-patrol.html
Do you agree with the message this video is trying to send? Do you agree with my interpretation of the video?