The Game of Thrones season 6 finale delivered on every front finally confirming a long held theory about a certain character’s parentage, resolving conflicts, setting up new ones and leaving us in a place clamoring for more episodes. Some spoilers ahead.
Plus this piece of music is so good we’re doing Music Monday on a Tuesday.
Cersei’s big plan paid off while leaving a trail of the dead and this opening extended sequence is one of the best that Game of Thrones has ever done ratcheting up the tension at every turn. Part of this was down to Ramin Djawadi’s score which started off sounding like a less melancholy version of the Leftovers repeated piano themes. Bringing in cellos and then the super dramatic sounding organ as the pieces fall into place is next level score genius and it has been pretty much been on repeat for most of yesterday and this morning. It makes typing feel all the more urgent.
Girls uses music from the present and past; weaving the two together as is case with listening habits. Old music can be just as new to one person as it is nostalgic to another and just because something wasn’t released recently that feeling of discovery isn’t diminished. Last year the playlist I put together was from the season as a whole, this season I am instead concentrating on the closing credits.
The Sunday Night HBO half-hour shows have been killing it with their choice of music for these final moments including an amazing choice by Togetherness– since this episode I have listened to Lily & Madeleine on a loop – and this playlist shows just how incredible Looking continues to be with their song selections.
Don’t worry there is no Desi and Marni on here and the tone of the closing music tends to be optimistic even when the events that have just preceded it aren’t always the case. A hint of melancholy can be heard in some of the tracks around mid-season when Hannah returned to New York to find Adam living with Mimi-Rose. Generally this is a pretty chilled out mix and one which is well suited to spring.
Sadly there are two credit songs not currently available on Spotify and both debuted on Girls this season; the first is St Vincent’s “Teenage Talk” appeared at the end of episode 8 “Tad & Loreen & Avi & Shanaz.”
The second played out during the final scene of the season finale with “Carry Me” by Family of the Year accompanying a rather surprising and very hopeful end to the year. When/if they appear on Spotify I will add them to the playlist.
*Updated* St Vincent is now on the playlist, also Family of the Year’s “Carry Me” is not on there yet and the video we originally posted from YouTube has been taken down.
We’ve tried to vary our Girls coverage this season including the discussion about faking everything, Fantasy Costuming with Rachel Antonoff and a Mimi-Rose pajama Wish List post.
And here is the season 4 closing credits playlist. It is short but sweet.
The Sunday night HBO shows all closed their episodes with excellent music choices and while both Girls with Chet Baker and Looking’s Spiritualized offering are both A+, I am going with Togetherness as this midweek edition of Music Monday. TV has introduced me to plenty of bands and artists I might not have heard otherwise and this morning has been spent listening to Lily & Madeleine.
First up “Come to Me Now” and the song which introduced me to this wonderful duo as it played during the final emotionally heavy scene and credits of “Party Time.” Punctuating Tina’s “I’m not really good at anything” declaration it offers some semblance of hope in Tina’s moment of despair; a moment I know I have experienced where you can’t figure out what the fuck you are meant to be doing and feel pretty garbage about some of your life choices.
And because I have spent the morning in this semi-productive state while also having flashes of creative self-doubt (standard Wednesday behavior) here is something from Lily & Madeleine’s new “Blues Blades” Acoustic Sessions EP. The song is a cover of Alex Turner’s “Stuck on the Puzzle” from the excellent coming of age movie Submarine. I love both versions and they manage to capture this feeling of being lost.
TV soundtracks forever helping to serve up new music to listen to.
Girls has been a big part of Music Monday and what better way to celebrate a mostly excellent season than with a playlist featuring some of the best tracks of the year. Plus I’m also trying to distract myself from thinking about the devastating events of another show that aired last night (yes, I’m looking at you The Good Wife) and music is that outlet. As discussed a few weeks back the closing credit music has been one place where the world of Girls is rather optimistic, even if it doesn’t match what we have just seen on screen. The final montage of season 3 uses Michael Penn’s “Good Girl Down” (sadly this isn’t on either Spotify or YouTube at this time, otherwise it would have definitely been part of this playlist) and in his role as Girls composer Penn penned (sorry, couldn’t resist) this track for the finale. Hannah’s smiling due to her grad school acceptance letter and while she has just had a big blowout fight with Adam, she’s still happy; this track does a good job of mirroring this.
This playlist is one to dance to, whether it’s a choreographed routine like in “Beach House” or even if it’s just a desk disco – which mine frequently are – it’s meant to be fun and uplifting. It’s not all dance party as there are some slower, more relaxing songs on here too and it’s generally got a good vibe to it. These are also some of the artists who I have been listening to for the past few weeks on repeat because of Girls, particularly Hannah Georgas and Hannah Cohen. The tracks are in the order they appeared on the episodes, except for Edie Brickell & New Bohemians’ “What I Am” as this song played throughout the season thanks to Marnie’s teeeeeerible YouTube video – why HBO hasn’t put this up on YouTube yet is beyond me – sorry if it gets stuck in your head as it did mine.
TV is generally the way I find out about bands now, gone are the days when I would do my homework and scribble down the names of songs I heard on the radio. The Girls end credits caused me to go on a Hannah Georgas binge after hearing the song “Millions” after last week’s episode “Free Snacks.” It’s a really great pop track and I have a soft spot for anything this upbeat that can drop an f-bomb without it sounding ridiculous and out of place.
The Girls closing track often sounds optimistic even if what we’ve seen before it has been less so; lyrics and melody don’t always mean the same thing so the words might be bleaker than the tune suggests. “Beach Hose” aired a lot of grievances that have been long bubbling under the surface and the Marnie/Hannah relationship has been fractured since the “you’re the wound” argument. It hasn’t really recovered from Marnie sleeping with Elijah last season and his presence reinforces this notion. “How are you Doing?” by The Living Sisters closes out “Beach House” and while everyone in the song says they are fine, saying you’re fine repeatedly often means the opposite.
Is everything fine? It’s hard to know how the events of this episode will alter the already shifted dynamic of this friendship group and just because Hannah and Marnie have been friends for 8 years doesn’t mean they will be friends for another 8, no matter how many times they they’ve used the phrase BFF. This ‘truth sharing’ needed to happen and while I figured it would include a Marnie/Ray revelation, I’m glad they’re saving this bombshell for another occasion as this was first and foremost about this group of women. Shoshanna might be a cruel drunk – it’s always the most surprising person who is – and I don’t really know why she is still hanging out with them other than Jessa being her cousin. Maybe it’s the fact that they are older than her college friends and she still has romantic notions about who they are. Well maybe not after this trip.
Marnie is of course a nightmare, but she’s also at her most fascinating when she is at her worst and forced organized fun is never going to give you the weekend you desire even if you get some super awesome Instagram posts out of it – between Girls and Looking they’re really nailing the Instagram critiques. I mean the first Girls season 3 promo was all about the Instagram of it all.
The episode ends with no clear resolution between these four women and I think Marnie needs to accept that you can’t force fun. She should get a cushion embroidered with this remark from Hannah regarding their choreographed piece “Why does everything have to be perfect? Like it had a lot of spirit.” While waiting to leave Hannah starts doing this dance once again and one by one the others join in; is there hope for this friendship group? One thing we can rely on; there will always be great closing credits music.
Chop Shop Records have produced some of my favorite TV soundtracks – including the recently discussed The O.C., Gossip Girl, Chuck, Mad Men and The Carrie Diaries. They’ve also produced some pretty topnotch ones for films and while I’ve never been particularly fond of the Twilight series, the music made up for my lack of love triangle intrigue. Now they are releasing music that has featured on Scandal and it’s a collection of songs that has a heavy ’70s influence with a smattering of new music.
Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes has worked with Chop Shop Records and music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas on both Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice and there’s something to be said about striking the balance between angst and upbeat in a show like this. A soundtrack is important in establishing tone and can enhance the narrative elements; as we have seen on Scandal there is plenty of drama and the pacing is something that is propelled at times by the music.
This is why a track like KC & the Sunshine Band’s “Get Down Tonight” is just as important as “The Light” by The Album Leaf. Both songs feature in the HUGE episode “Nobody Likes Babies,” an episode that marked the voter fraud story coming to a head and all of the characters facing the consequences of their actions. Plus Fitz did something very bad.
The reason I have picked these two songs is because one represents the way they use music to show the associates sifting through information (on this occasion conversations between Abby and David) and the other is all about Olivia and Fitz (and a eulogy). Even though I’m not Fitz’s biggest fan I’m not immune to the chemistry between the pair and “The Light” by The Album Leaf is a haunting and touching piece of music. It is used later in the season in the episode “Seven Fifty-Two” and has become a love theme of sorts for Olivia and Fitz; repetition with songs in this way is a good way of giving cues to an audience with no dialogue necessary. You can listen to both tracks below.
If you follow Chop Shop Records on Twitter you will have seen that they are doing a countdown to the release of the soundtrack with other tracks that have featured on the show but didn’t make the playlist. It’s a shame that only 12 songs make the list as there are some really great songs that are missing. This is the benefit of sites like Spotify as you can make your own Scandal playlist to accompany the official one.
The Scandal soundtrack is released Tuesday, September 3 and for a full list of the songs used on the show (including episode and scene) head here.
This is a slight play on TV Ate My Wardrobe’s Mad Men Music Monday feature and we want to give you a good musical start to your week. Regina Spektor’s music has appeared on many TV shows (including Veronica Mars, Grey’s Anatomyand Boardwalk Empire) and you could probably make an excellent mixtape of all of Spektor’s soundtrack appearances; she even featured on our 2012-2013 playlist with “Don’t Leave Me (Ne Me Quitte Pas)” which appeared on season 2 of Girls.
Regina Spektor has now written and performed a new track for the opening credits of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black (which is currently top of my ‘to watch’ list) called “You’ve Got Time” and it is superb.
TV Ate My Wardrobe 