Top TV Song Last Week: Under the Pressue by The War On Drugs
Netflix series BoJack Horseman takes top song this week with the big season finale scene.
Under the Pressure
from BoJack Horseman Soundtrack · Season 5 · Episode 12 · The Stopped Show
Diane gets into the car and drives away; end cr…
The song underscores the final scene of the season (spoiler alert!), as Diane drops BoJack off at rehab. It continues through an extended cut of Diane driving away and into the end credits. As observant fans have noted, this is the first time the series has ended the season on something other than a shot of BoJack himself.
Clocking in at almost nine minutes long, ‘Under the Pressure’ is the lead track off The War On Drugs’ third EP, Lost In the Dream, and was their first AAA charting song. Featured on a list of the band’s best tracks, Stereogum hailed it as a “journey” that is “somehow one of [the band’s] catchiest and bleariest compositions at once.”
Written during a dark and emotional time for band founder Adam Granduciel, the album has been hailed for combining themes of anxiety and desolation with a hopefulness. Those are just the sort of mixed emotions that have spawned thought pieces from Vulture and Vanity Fair on just what that cryptic final scene means for BoJack’s future, as well as for Diane.
“With ‘Under the Pressure’ I just found two chords I liked, and built it up, did like a ten-minute drum pattern,” Granduciel shared of his songwriting process. ‘With others, it might start with piano, flesh it out, add a little drum machine so I can have a beat to work with. Then I improvise lyrics, things I could never write looking at a blank page, things that surprise me.’
The War On Drugs was founded by Granduciel and Kurt Vile in Philadelphia in 2005. Originally inspired by Bob Dylan and compared to Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen, over the years the band has had a few members come and go, including Vile. At the time of release of Lost In the Dream in 2014, the band’s lineup included Adam Granduciel on vocals, guitar, and keyboards, Dave Hartley on bass guitars/electric guitars, Charlie Hall on drums and organ, Jon Natchez on saxophone and keyboard, Anthony LaMarca on guitar/keyboards, and multi-instrumentalist Robbie Bennett.
More
〉Listen now: Under the Pressure by The War On Drugs
〉More music by The War On Drugs
