Synopsis

Shot in stark black and white, "This World" presents The Dream Academy amid the abandoned, decaying interior of CBGB in New York. The band performs against a harsh urban backdrop, while the imagery gives the song's bleak subject matter a physical setting. Rather than following a conventional narrative, the video creates an atmosphere of alienation and danger, matching the track's meditation on heroin addiction, damaged friendships, and the darker pressures surrounding young musicians.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was filmed at the abandoned CBGB, the influential New York punk and underground music venue.

• Its black-and-white photography and rough, confrontational style were designed to contrast with the band's more pastoral and orchestral sound.

• Nick Laird-Clowes said the song was inspired by the heroin problem he had observed among friends and musicians in Liverpool and elsewhere.

• "This World" was initially sent to radio as a possible first single, but radio programmers favored "Life in a Northern Town." It was not released as a regular commercial single, although Warner Bros. still made a video so the band could be presented to MTV.

• The video was made during the band's first major trip to the United States and was shot alongside another Dream Academy video over roughly three or four days.

• The clip was included in Warner Bros.' 1985 home-video collection "The Dream Academy: Four Video Clips," which also featured "Life in a Northern Town" and "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want."