Artist: Various Artists
Album: The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond
Label: Universal Republic Records
Release Date: March 20
Grade: A
The Hunger Gamesis quickly becoming the newest craze in pop culture; it's only natural that the music used to set the tone of its scenes gets similar attention. With well-known artists like Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Kid Cudi, and Miranda Lambert, the soundtrack The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond delivers all the emotion of the film.
One such song is "Kingdom Come" by The Civil Wars. In the movie, Katniss endures numerous hardships that could cause her to want to run away, including the contestant selection for the games. "Kingdom Come" describes just this.
"Run, run, run away/buy yourself another day/a cold wind's whispering secrets in your ear/so low only you can hear," The Civil Wars duo Joy Williams and John Paul White sings.
With somber melodies and lyrics of pain, all that's needed to make the soundtrack brilliant is the emotion of passionate artists. That's exactly what singers like country stars Miranda Lambert and Taylor Swift bring to the album.
Lambert sings "Run Daddy Run" which relates to Katniss' need for her deceased father. Lambert's talent of bringing passion to her music translates well in this song that touches on the sadness of the film's main character.
Swift recorded two songs for the soundtrack of The Hunger Games. "Safe and Sound" featuring The Civil Wars, is a slower, more solemn track, while "Eyes Open" is fast paced with touching lyrics.
"Eyes Open" describes the cruelty of the bloody competition that is the premise of The Hunger Games. It speaks to the common themes of loss of innocence that dominate the film.
"The tricky thing is/yesterday we were just children/playing soldiers/ just pretending/ dreaming dreams with happy endings/in backyards, winning battles with wooden swords/ but now we've stepped into a cruel world/where everybody stands and keeps score," Swift sings.
This soundtrack evokes all the pain and emotion that is seen in The Hunger Games. The intriguing lyrics are brilliantly sung with all the fervor that the story deserves.
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