Antony And The Johnsons - Angel On Fire

Catching Fire, the middle book in the Hunger Games trilogy and follow-up to last year's film, hits theatres in the US tonight.  The first movie featured a soundtrack with contributions from a variety of big name artists, including Taylor Swift and Arcade Fire.  The entire soundtrack aesthetic matched the film almost perfectly and also turned out to be quite the money maker, so they're doing it again.  Catching Fire's soundtrack is getting plenty of buzz, thanks to names like Sia and Lorde, but the final track on the album is by Antony And The Johnsons and we need to talk about it.

First of all, Antony being associated with a young adult book sensation is an unexpected image.  I can't stop myself from imagining all of the young teens who will be introduced to his music through their love of Katniss.  With that said, the song is beautifully understated.  It starts out with sweeping strings that sound like both a Hunger Games score and a signature Antony track.  It has that hopeless yet hopeful sound.  Some of the music behind the song comes from an old 4-track recording that Antony used with his previous performances in New York City clubs.  Maybe "Angel On Fire" will manage to get a slot during the closing credits.