"Demons" is a song by English recording artist James Morrison. It was written by Morrison along with Mima Stilwell and James Elliott for his fourth studio album '' Higher Than Here'' (2015).

Music video

The music video for the song begins with Morrison singing while lying on his back on a street in a London with a location identifiable as Choumet Road Peckham. A few seconds later, he gets up and continues singing while walking towards Bellenden Road, visiting The Victoria Inn on the corner of Choumet Road and Bellenden Road. He sees various people during his walk, each of them being manipulated by a

doppelgänger A doppelgänger (), a compound noun formed by combining the two nouns (double) and (walker or goer) (), doppelgaenger or doppelganger is a biologically unrelated look-alike, or a double, of a living person. In fiction and mythology, a doppelg ...

of themselves with "demonic" white eyes. Midway through the video, it is revealed that Morrison was the victim of a hit-and-run car accident, implying that the protagonist is actually Morrison's

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

. In the last scene, Morrison returns to his unconscious self, still lying on the street and being resuscitated, and kneels down behind him. When he looks back up, his eyes have become demonic and he makes a "shhh!" sign. The location of the incident is identifiable by a red dot on a hand-drawn map in chalk on the blackboard on the wall of the bar in The Victoria Inn. The

seven deadly sins The seven deadly sins, also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins, is a grouping and classification of vices within Christian teachings. Although they are not directly mentioned in the Bible, there are parallels with the seven things ...

appear throughout the video, spelt out in various ways: *

Greed Greed (or avarice) is an uncontrolled longing for increase in the acquisition or use of material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions); or social value, such as Social status, status, or Power (social and politica ...

: a capital G added with a felt-tip marker to a road sign for "Reed Street". *

Gluttony Gluttony ( la, gula, derived from the Latin ''gluttire'' meaning "to gulp down or swallow") means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or wealth items, particularly as status symbols. In Christianity, it is considered a sin if ...

: spelt out by the labels of eight beer bottles lined up on a counter. *

Wrath Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, su ...

: written on a blackboard using a drawing of a

rat Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...

flanked by a capital W and a capital H. *

Sloth Sloths are a group of Neotropical xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their li ...

: on the name tag of a waitress and her demonic doppelgänger. *

Pride Pride is defined by Merriam-Webster as "reasonable self-esteem" or "confidence and satisfaction in oneself". A healthy amount of pride is good, however, pride sometimes is used interchangeably with "conceit" or "arrogance" (among other words) wh ...

: painted in red on a wall by a

graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...

artist and his demonic doppelgänger. *

Envy Envy is an emotion which occurs when a person lacks another's quality, skill, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it. Aristotle defined envy as pain at the sight of another's good fortune, stirred b ...

: a brand name on a TV set, using the same typography as

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

. *

Lust Lust is a psychological force producing intense desire for something, or circumstance while already having a significant amount of the desired object. Lust can take any form such as the lust for sexuality (see libido), money, or power. It can ...

: a tattoo on a girl's arm (also worn by her demonic doppelgänger). At 2:10 into the video, the graffiti artist's demonic doppelgänger snaps his fingers and the song stops for about 12 seconds (it resumes with a fade-in at 2:22). This makes the full video clock in at 3:33, rather than the 3:17 of the standard song - an apparent reference either to the

Illuminati The Illuminati (; plural of Latin ''illuminatus'', 'enlightened') is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on ...

or to

Choronzon Choronzon is a demon that originated in writing with the 16th-century occultists Edward Kelley and John Dee within the latter's occult system of Enochian magic. In the 20th century he became an important element within the mystical system of Th ...

, a demon figure in the

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pro ...

-founded philosophical movement

Thelema Thelema () is a Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial magician. The word '' ...

Charts

Weekly charts

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Demons (James Morrison song) 2015 singles 2015 songs James Morrison (singer) songs Songs written by Jim Eliot Songs written by Mima Stilwell Songs written by James Morrison (singer) Island Records singles Seven deadly sins in popular culture