Synopsis

A lone motorcyclist speeds through a bleak, misty landscape toward a secluded house in the woods, where a small gathering is underway. Above them, a blazing celestial object grows larger as it hurtles toward Earth. James Blake appears in stark, isolated performance shots, while the rider reaches the party just as the impending impact becomes unavoidable. The video leaves the aftermath unseen, turning its sparse narrative into an eerie portrait of distance, doom, and an attempt to reconnect before everything disappears.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was released on February 10, 2013, one day before "Retrograde" became available as the lead single from Blake's second album, *Overgrown*.

• The production was filmed over a day and a half on the outskirts of Copenhagen.

• The clip was made through a collaboration between the UK production company A+ and the Danish company Bacon.

• Its central disaster imagery was widely interpreted as an asteroid impact, although the video's deliberately incomplete narrative avoids confirming exactly what happens.

• "Retrograde" was nominated for Best Colour Grade in a Video at the 2013 UK Music Video Awards.

• The song later received the 2014 Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song, helping establish "Retrograde" as one of Blake's signature compositions.