The 72nd annual Golden Globe Awards are taking place this Sunday, Jan. 11, and there are some very big names nominated for Best Original Song this year. Here are the five nominees, ranked from worst to best.
5. Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye – “Mercy Is” from Noah
Surely I’m not the only one who finds it ironic that Patti Smith, who famously opened her debut album with the line “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine,” wrote a song for a Biblical epic. While Smith is probably my favorite artist on this list, her song “Mercy Is” from Darren Aronofsky’s Noah is so incredibly boring. I know you can’t exactly throw a poetic art-punk song in the middle of a film about Noah’s Ark, but you can at least make your maudlin string-heavy ballad a bit more melodically or harmonically striking.
4. John Legend and Common – “Glory” from Selma
In terms of social and historical relevance, John Legend and Common’s “Glory” from the civil rights drama Selma is by far the most important song to be nominated this year, a call for justice and peace in depressingly turbulent times. Common’s lyrics are fine, but they’re incredibly underserved by John Legend’s overly dramatic and bombastic arrangement, which relies so heavily on orchestral flourishes that it’s basically screaming “THIS IS IMPORTANT, PLEASE GIVE ME A NOMINATION!” As Kanye West proved with “Heard ‘Em Say,” it is entirely possible to write a powerful, socially conscious hip-hop song while keeping things tasteful and understated.
3. Greg Kurstin, Sia, Will Gluck – “Opportunity” from Annie
Going into this list, I was honestly expecting myself to place “Opportunity” at the bottom of the list, since I’ve heard less than stellar things about the new Annie adaptation, but the song is surprisingly not awful, largely due to the fact that Sia wrote most of it. Sure, it’s pretty schmaltzy and saccharine (this is a musical, after all), but it’s also genuinely powerful and moving. However, Sia’s version is much better than the version sung by Annie star Quvenzhané Wallis. Nothing against Wallis, but her voice has been so blatantly Autotuned that it’s difficult to get into.
2. Lana Del Rey – “Big Eyes” from Big Eyes
Is there some unwritten rule that all pop songs written for films need to have string sections? Though Lana Del Rey’s “Big Eyes” from the Tim Burton film of the same name definitely has that darkly romantic Lana Del Rey quality, the production definitely makes it sound like a song commissioned specifically for a film. Still, Lana Del Rey is one of the most singular and unique pop stars working today, capable of conjuring up haunting melodies and sinister atmospheres like no one else, and “Big Eyes” is no exception, though it definitely would have sounded better if Dan Auerbach produced it.
1. Lorde – “Yellow Flicker Beat” from The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1
All of the criticisms I leveled against “Big Eyes” for sounding like a “movie song” are pretty much inapplicable for Lorde’s “Yellow Flicker Beat,” which is why it’s the best song to be nominated this year. Although the song was written for the latest Hunger Games film, this still sounds like a Lorde song: gothic, danceable, and intelligent. This can likely be attributed to the fact that the song was co-written and produced by Joel Little, who worked with Lorde on her debut album Pure Heroine, so her winning formula hasn’t changed.
What song do you think should win at the Golden Globes on Sunday? Let us know down in the comments section below!
