Sunday, January 18, 2015

"The Hanging Tree" - James Newton Howard ft. Jennifer Lawrence

Today we have a song that got popular because of a movie. I'm sorry, did we go back 30 years or something?


Whatever. As long as a song is interesting enough to stand on its own, it belongs on the pop charts. So, what have we got?


...ehhhhh?

What the hell is this? What kind of lifeless nothingness of a track is this?

Okay, so I'm not going in fully blind to this song. I have read the entire Hunger Games series, so I do recognize these lyrics. This is "The Hanging Tree", a song that Katniss learned from her father and uses as a battle cry in the movie. Now, I haven't seen this movie, but... really? This?

Honestly, I kind of thought the song was a little limp even in the book. I guess the repetition in the song provides a good, catchy chant for your... hunger games tribe to chant, but it doesn't make for interesting storytelling and it doesn't make for good lyrics. I'm all for a good protest song, but actually make it a good song!


Seriously, they repeat three of the four lines over and over again, only slightly changing up each verse. The melody doesn't even really change, at least vocally. Jennifer Lawrence said that she requested Lorde to song this song, and... honestly? Yeah, I think they should have done it. Lorde might have been able to pull off what J-Law is failing to here, and it might have helped build on Lorde's persona as a singer. She may be tired of throwing her hands up in the air, but by God, she'll belt one out for a movie if she has to!

I don't know. Maybe it works in the movie, but on its own it's kind of limp and lifeless. The instrumentation gets nice towards the end, but there's only so much you can do with the same melody over and over. I probably won't be coming to this tree, is all I'm saying. Find me a bush or something.

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