Love and one’s quest to find it has been the subject of the greatest stories ever told and some of the best songs ever written. It is a language the whole world speaks and a feeling we all know firsthand. In 2020, indie-pop artist John Adams released song ‘Kiss Every Stranger’ which describes how he plans to find his true love. Joined with a professional lyric video release, this proposed method of finding the one might be well received by many.
John Adams is a singer/songwriter from Aberdare in the south of Wales. Although music has always been a passion of his, Adams followed a more mainstream career and became a maths teacher. This independent artist began busking on the streets of Cardiff and eventually saved enough money to record and release his first album, ‘The Pavement is My Stage’ which ended up reaching number 3 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter charts. In 2011, Adams got a taste of stardom when he auditioned on the X Factor where he performed a cover of Damien Rice’s ‘Cannonball’. The nation instantly fell in love with the Welsh heartthrob. He used the notoriety as a stepping stone to create a huge online following on YouTube where he would post videos of himself performing covers of popular songs as well as his own music. Finally, Adams was ready for a full-time career in the music industry so he quit teaching and began focusing on his music. This indie-pop star has over 16 million streams on Spotify and millions of views on YouTube. He has captured the hearts of his fans with his signature vocal range and acoustic charisma.
On January 31st 2020, Adams released emotive single ‘Kiss Every Stranger’ via British independent record label Tristar Records. This was his first release since his 2019 EP, ‘No White Lies’ which peaked at number 2 on iTunes. As this homegrown up and comer is no stranger to videos, he respectfully paired his release with a professional lyric video. This love ballad pulls in his fans with his tender vocals and emotional lyricism and the high-quality lyric video sets the mood perfectly for the song. The visuals present multiple shots of indistinguishable women in beautiful poignant scenes. This slow pop song touches on the subject of love and togetherness and Adams sings about finding ‘the one’. The footage using the unrecognizable women fits well in sending this message as the different women represent the ‘strangers’ that he is going to meet (and kiss) on his search for true love.
Adams’ female fan base could definitely find this video relatable as the women could be any of them and they could be somebody’s soul mate. We are all waiting in the wings in search for love and this lyric video really captures that longful mood. I love how the footage is all tinted with what appears to be a sepia-style filter which further sells the romanticism of the video. The shots pair up nicely with his hopeful lyrics when he sings, ‘for now I’m gonna kiss every stranger until one them is her” and we see the intimate moment when two people meet, embrace and kiss. Another example of this is when he sings ‘So by the time we get there, we are both wet anyway’ and we see a delightful shot of a woman’s feet walking along the shoreline.
The lyrics are beautifully presented in 2 different font styles. One being a block font using all capitals and the other is a pretty script font with the text in all lowercase. When displayed together, the lyrics are wonderfully picturesque over the soft pink hue background footage. This lyric video is visually stunning and leaves all of the viewers feeling warm and optimistic in thoughts of finding love. High quality lyric videos are extremely effective in providing an artistic visual representation of an artist’s story or brand. In the case of ‘Kiss Every Stranger’, it utilizes beautiful footage that is soft on the eyes and appealing font choices to pair up with Adams’ tender-hearted vocals to tell a story we can all relate to. Some fairy tales tend to end with a happily ever after, and in Adams’ case, he has met his soulmate in his wife Kelly Adams and in January of 2021 they announced that they are expecting. The world better be paying close attention as this new love will certainly shape his music and I cannot wait to listen.
Check out ‘Kiss Every Stranger‘ on John Adams’ YouTube channel here: