Young Fathers share new track ‘Only God Knows’

You might have noticed there’s a sequel to cult 1996 film ‘Trainspotting’ coming out soon, and Scottish alt-hip hop group Young Fathers have provided a song for its soundtrack.

There’s a little bit of a backstory to the inclusion of ‘Only God Knows’ too. Young Fathers first met Irvine Welsh – the author of ‘Trainspotting’ – in 2015, when Irvine was making a documentary about creativity in their home town of Edinburgh. Meanwhile, the group encountered director Danny Boyle not long after their Mercury Prize win in 2014.

Danny Boyle himself talked about the track in a statement: “Trainspotting, the original book is like a modern Ulysses. 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.”

A “rush” is a pretty good way of describing of the track, which is a pounding onslaught of beats that gradually build up into a frenzy, the Leith Congregational Choir’s voices giving it that extra bit of holiness.

Listen to ‘Only God Knows’ below.