Following efforts from Coldplay (yawn) and Christina (overblown), it’s time for another track taken from the forthcoming Hunger Games soundtrack.
This is certainly a leftfield choice however. On the one hand, Sia, Diplo and The Weeknd
make something of a dream-team, yet on the other hand the electro R&B feel
of Elastic Heart is a major departure
from the first film’s folky-Americana soundtrack.
As a standalone song, it has all the ingredients of a hit:
dreamy production and skittering beats from Diplo, a soaring chorus melody from
Sia, and icy falsetto guest vocals from The Weeknd. It’s a solid effort, but far from the best
work of each artist.
As for its suitability for the film, lyrically its themes of
love and war parallel the plot, Sia singing “now another one bites the dust, yeah let’s be clear, I'll trust no one”. The
elastic conceit also fits with Katniss’s weapon of choice, the bow (“I’m like a
rubber band, until you pull too hard”). Yet
musically, this feels worlds apart from the aesthetic of the film, instead more
of an excuse to shoehorn some top artists into the soundtrack.
And anyway, doesn’t Sia have more important things to be
working on, like the new Beyoncé album…?
3/5
Listen: Elastic Heart will feature on the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire in November.
