BEST NEW SONGS: YOUNG FATHERS - ONLY GOD KNOWS FEAT. LEITH CONGREGATIONAL CHOIR

If you recently caught the T2 soundtrack, you may've noticed that injected alongside the nostalgic likes of Underworld and Iggy Pop was a far less familiar name: that of Scottish hip hop outfit Young Fathers. The Mercy Prize winners feature not once, not twice, but six (!) times in Danny Boyle's highly anticipated sequel to his 1996 cult hit Trainspotting, with one of those tracks, “Only God Knows,” today being crowned a Best New Song.

Described by Boyle as “the heartbeat” of the film, “Only God Knows” is a positively transcendent gospel-punk banger that opens with Young Fathers' Alloysius Massaquoi passionately, soul-stirringly rapping (“Only God knows where your wife is sleeping/Only God knows what the preacher's preaching”) over an unrelenting beat. It's once Leith Congregational Choir join the song, however, that “Only God Knows” really begins its rapturous ascension, capturing in turn the almost dizzying sense of hope that drives much of Trainspotting (and I'm assuming T2 – I haven't seen the movie yet!).

“Trainspotting, the original book, is like a modern Ulysses,” Danny Boyle explained in a press release. “It's unsurpassed I think, and reading it is still like the 'rush of ocean to the heart.' You're always looking for the heartbeat of a film. For Trainspotting, it was Underworld's 'Born Slippy.' For T2, it's Young Fathers. Their songs are my heartbeat for the film. And 'Only God Knows' is that rush again. The ocean. The heart.”

Listen.

YOUNG FATHERS - ONLY GOD KNOWS FT. LEITH CONGREGATIONAL CHOIR

About Jess Grant

When Jess Grant isn't writing on music, she can be found playing it – on her guitar, on her ukulele, and on her recently acquired mandolin. Playing it hideously, she ought to add. Jess also studies. She studies the English language, to be precise. Jess is currently on her way to a degree in the subject, and enjoys starting and never finishing novels, screenplays, and poetry in her spare time. She also likes dogs. Lots of dogs.