Music Review: James Newton Howard & Jennifer Lawrence "The Hanging Tree"

James Newton Howard & Jennifer Lawrence

The Hanging Tree

Album: Mockinjay, Part 1 sdtk

Year: 2014

                Jennifer Lawrence, as Katniss, lets her vulnerability show in the                     intriguing “The Hanging Tree.”

               Only Lawrence’s vocals open the single, setting a raw tone. Katniss has seen too much. She has watched her family suffer after her dad’s passing. She memorized the song he taught her and hummed it to herself. It would hurt mother and sister to have to hear it. Her father knew of the corruption and questioned it. People would disappear if they spoke up to the Capitol. But there’s hope for once. But it would be a sacrifice. They may not live.  (“Are you, are you/Coming to the tree/Where they strung up a man they say murdered three/Strange things did happen here/No stranger would it be/If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree/Are you, are you/Coming to the tree/Where the dead man called out for his love to flee/Strange things did happen here/No stranger would it be/If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree/Are you, are you/Coming to the tree/Where I told you to run, so we’d both be free/Strange things did happen here/No stranger would it be/If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree/Are you, are you/Coming to the tree/Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me/Strange things did happen here/No stranger would it be/If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree/ Are you, are you/Coming to the tree/Where they strung up a man they say murdered three/Strange things did happen here/No stranger would it be/If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree.”)

             Lawrence is perfectly in character as Katniss, as her long buried emotions surface again. She is reached her breaking point. Losing Peeta hit her harder than expected and now all she can do is feel.       

            Newton Howard’s haunting arrangement is approriately dark. Lawrence’s emotions are kept front and center. It does not flinch or fear the past.

                   The interesting “The Hanging Tree” holds still and strong despite its fragility.