If you’re into ultra-dark movies exploring humankind’s penchant for greed, hatred, and power via the exploitation of natural resources, 2007’s There Will Be Blood is for you. On the other hand, if you just want those things conveyed musically without having to actually witness them, Johnny Greenwood’s soundtrack should be enough.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. It just sounds so bleak. Greenwood has always been good at bleak, but his work in Radiohead has always been evocative of near-future technological bleakness. Here he captures a lower-tech, late-19th Century wild-west lawlessness kind of bleak.
2. The (I think) clarinet that fades away a few times, such as at 1:20, has a tonal quality startlingly similar to Radiohead front man Thom Yorke’s voice.
3. Usually, songs that shift up a tone or two towards the end do so to uplift the listener. But when this one modulates at 2.27 it just makes things more tense.
Recommended listening activity:
Shuddering.