Various Artists - The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 OST (Album Review)
Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Written by Huw Baines
The music business is awash with sentiments that mean little to nothing. ‘Curated by’ is often one of them; a handy way to attach meaning or a star name to a project in need of a little momentum. Lorde’s involvement with the soundtrack to Mockingjay - Part 1, the latest instalment in the Hunger Games series, is the polar opposite of such an empty gesture.
Her fingerprints are all over this record, on which she has wrangled some of the finest pop songs of the year into an expertly-paced whole. Using the film’s heroine, the freedom fighter Katniss Everdeen, as a starting point, Lorde has channelled the desperation, fear, anger and spirit of rebellion at the heart of the story into a framework that has allowed an all-star cast to add their own distinctive touches and extensions to it.
‘Pure Heroine’ and its accompanying live shows demonstrated that Lorde has a knack for sequencing, but here she takes that further. Her personal involvement each step of the way has been a big point of the pre-release buzz, but its importance really becomes clear the further you delve into the collection.
“No one gives some random 17-year-old from New Zealand the opportunity to soundtrack a major motion picture,” she recently told KROQ. Well, random 17-year-old she ain’t.
Yellow Flicker Beat is the album’s heart, but her propulsive chorus to Meltdown - which finds Stromae, Haim, Pusha-T and Q-Tip on duty - and fragile take on Bright Eyes’ Ladder Song are equally well placed. The latter is a fine parting shot, its lyrics prescient and indicative of the depth of the planning process: “If I got to go first, I’ll do it on my terms. I’m tired of traitors, always changing sides.”
Elsewhere, the tracklist lurches from similarly delicate, yet foreboding, cuts by CharliXCX and Simon Le Bon and Tinashe to percussive menace on Grace Jones’ Original Beast. The Chemical Brothers and Miguel step in late in the day and almost steal proceedings with This Is Not A Game, an odd-couple pairing that bookends a massive hook with crushing samples.
Chvrches’ Dead Air points at a very exciting next move for the Scottish trio, combining with the ominous electro of Tove Lo’s Scream My Name at the top of the order. Bat For Lashes’ Natasha Khan, meanwhile, spins a wistful web around Plan The Escape, a track originally by past Lorde collaborator Son Lux.
Far from being a cash-powered tie in, this is a living, breathing statement of its own. Lorde has sculpted one of the best pop albums of the year from disparate beginnings and, in the process, cemented her place as one of the most exciting artists currently operating.
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