"Automatic Flowers" is a song by Canadian alternative rock group Our Lady Peace

Our Lady Peace

Our Lady Peace is a Canadian alternative rock band that formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1992. Headed by lead vocalist Raine Maida since its formation, the band additionally consists of Jeremy Taggart on percussion, Duncan Coutts on bass, and Steve Mazur as lead guitarist...

, released as the third single from their second studio album, Clumsy.

Meaning

In writing the song, Raine Maida began by thinking about a woman who lived alone in her apartment. The woman has little going on in her life, and the apartment is dingy, without much of a view. She has boxes from her childhood, and one day she takes out a pop-up book and opens it to a garden with pop-up flowers. Whenever she wants to cheer herself up, she opens the book. Maida puts only traces of the entire history in the lyrics.

Music video

For the first time, Our Lady Peace self-directed their music video for this song. The video was filmed on July 15 of 1997 and consists of the band playing in a dimly lit room (a rehearsal space in Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

). The video reached the #1 spot on the Muchmusic

MuchMusic

MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...

countdown on October 15, 1997. In 1998 it was ranked #47 for Muchmusic's favourite videos of all time.