You may want to skip this one if you’re feeling particularly emotionally fragile today. Britpop band James have released a video for their new single “Moving On” that tells a bittersweet story about the circle of life and death. In less than 4 minutes, the video will cause you to feel the universal emotions of sadness, joy, love, grief, and hope. And it’s all told through a ball of string.

Now tell me that isn’t art. The video is by BAFTA award winning animator Ainslie Henderson, whose work you can see at www.ainsliehenderson.com or follow at @ainslie7 on Twitter. There are some behind-the-scenes images of Ainslie working on the animation on his Tumblr at http://ainslieanimation.tumblr.com/. Quite beautiful and brilliant.

James are a Britpop band from Manchester who formed in the early 80s and hit peak popularity with their inescapable single, “Laid.” They dissolved ages ago but reformed in 2007 and are now returning with their 13th studio album La Petite Mort and an international tour. Look for the album on shelves on June 2.

What do you think of the song? To be quite honest, I’m afraid the video overshadows the song for me. It’s a nice tune, but I’ll need to listen to it again in a few days when I’ve stopped sobbing over the video. It’s hard to separate the music from the emotions brought about by the adorable but heartbreaking story. It does make me interested in their new album, however!