You know, I hadn’t really thought about it from that angle-it puts the video in a different light for me.  Very interesting.  I have enjoyed reading the different interpretations from fans here regarding the video. 

I find it pretty fascinating that Adam managed to express (let’s be honest) a fairly run-of-the-mill song in a pretty unique way and also squeeze in a point of view.

Yes indeed.

Ok, lemme preface this by saying I love Adam Lambert as a performer.

Now that I got that out of the way – the boy can sing but he simply cannot act.  This video is just dreck cooked in wrong sauce.  Why the hell does Adam looks so pretty at the beginning while everyone else looks badly anemic?  Also, this is a love song, what the hell does it have to do with living off pills and scrubbing concrete in the future?

Adam should have looked just as bad as everyone else at the start, then when he crushed his purple powder pill slowly started to look more normal.  THAT would have made sense.

IMHO this video is an embarrassment.  Sorry Adam, love your music but this is awful.

It is amusing to me that none of the press outlets seem to have gotten the actual real inspiration.  When I first saw the description of the video in the audition call sheet my first thought was THX 1138.  Recently in the Larry Flick interview I think, a fan asks about the inspiration but she can’t get the name of the movie but Adam says “yes 60′s George Lucas”.  THX 1138 was originally done by Lucas in 1967 as a film school project then redone as a feature film in 72 I think. 

The really interesting thing I find about that being an inspiration is that beyond the futuristic dystopian society angle the movie was about not just being controlled but also the control of sexual expression.  Here is a description from the wiki page.

“In a city of the future, sexual intercourse is outlawed and use of
mind-altering drugs is mandatory. Narcotics are critical both in
maintaining compliance among the city’s residents and also for ensuring
their ability to conduct dangerous and demanding tasks for long periods
of time. The inhabitants worship a godlike being known as “OMM 0910″,
with whom they commune in telephone booth-like areas known as Unichapels”

The obvious corollary is the oppression of the expression of non-heterosexual sexuality.  For me the video is another declaration of the need for LGBT’s to be free to express their sexuality.  Don’t let anyone control your life. It’s a coming out party.

He’s the prettiest because he just arrived yesterday. It’s in the Cliff notes. He’s the hero of the film. Basking in the white light because he’s the most enlightened human there. Or anywhere, actually.  Especially since he managed to conquer evil radio networks, shady media and Westboro Baptist Church. He’s been deemed the voice of the generation. It all started at a show called the AMAs after he descended to earth from Planet Fierce. His mission was to convert the unenlightened, like Michael Sarver (in his own words) to realize love is everything.

He will not become a drone who continues to take the mind altering pills like other Earthlings hypnotized by MSNBC and FOX. He won’t perform menial tasks (except maybe a Jingle Ball or two). NO scrubbing floors in between them performing sick twisted experiments on him, trying to clock his vocal range, wear boring clothes, torturing him with music from Barney and watching American Idol reruns, endless loops of Mediabase stats and comments left on Perez Hilton’s websites…leaving him too skinny, hoarse and anemic. Kind of how Gaga was able to destroy her captors after drinking the magical potion in Bad Romance and leave the guy a corpse all in five minutes. They’re super heros, get into it. :) Unlike his drone roomies, he’s NEVER GONNA CLOSE HIS EYES like the rest of them, which, as you saw, their eyes turned dark and blind in the drone capsule machine thingy. They are weak because they never made their iTunes, Amazon or deluxe version purchases from adamofficial.com. He accomplishes this by his superhuman will power and awesome sauceness that is what makes him the only person on the planet who can save the world. While staying impeccably fierce and banshee boy dancy. 

Then in the end, he forgives them all for doubting, turns around and goes back in to save the rest, accompanied by his new de-droided friends who’ve seen the error of their ways and will follow him to forever. Including 4 Queen concerts destined to be …well you get the point. 

Also, this is a love song, what the hell does it have to do with living off pills and scrubbing concrete in the future?

Would it have been better if it depicted Adam opening and closing his eyes, sleeping and staying awake? I mean, then it would really have to do with the song.

Thank you for summing it up, Dana. I’ve never seen the film (my curiosity was piqued, though) so it’s good to know the major reference. Hah, so that’s what the dronebooths might have been all about! I was thinking along the lines of the world/music industry/idol oppressing Adam’s artistic expression, trying to make him fit the standard, and him going all dance-dance revolution. It’s great to know what the author was most likely really thinking about. 

Kayla, this is my favorite from Rolling Stone’s review:

”
It’d
be a good addition to our “Ten Best Apocalyptic Dance Music Videos” gallery.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/adam-lambert-releases-dystopian-never-close-our-eyes-clip-20120529To be added to RS Ten Best Apocalyptic Dance Music Videos…
“

I’ll second that one.

Also, this is a love song, what the hell does it have to do with living off pills and scrubbing concrete in the future?

I don’t know, what the hell does dragging a piano through the city and on a highway have to do with Grenade by Bruno Mars. What do glasses of water or a dancer covered in flour have to do with Adele’s Rolling in the Deep?

NCOE doesn’t have to be just a simple love song. As other fans have stated, the meaning could very easily be interpreted as a song about living life to the fullest.

Whoa NCOE video counter is at 688,000 and stuck. WERQ Adam. It’s been, like, one day??