Hear Kate Bush’s ‘Lyra’
Posted on by Will

BBC Radio 6 played last night Kate Bush’s song Lyra, which is to be played over the end-credits of The Golden Compass. You can listen to the song at the BBC (44 mins 20 seconds in), or right here:

Kate Bush – Lyra (download)

Thanks to Kate Bush News. Here’s the lyrics for the song too:

Where are our lives
If there is no dream
Where is our home

We don’t know how
There will be a way
Out of this storm
We will find home

And her soul walks beside her
An army stands behind her
Lyra, Lyra

And her face full of grace
Two worlds collide around her
The truth lies deep inside her
Lyra, Lyra

And the stars look down upon her
This darkness settles on her
Lyra, Lyra

Who’s to know what’s in the future
We hope we will be with her
We have all our love to give her
O Lyra, Lyra

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82 Responses to Hear Kate Bush’s ‘Lyra’

  1. Mockingbird says:

    It doesn’t work for me in IE or Firefox. Can you post it directly, Will?

  2. Kyrillion says:

    I can’t get the thing to skip ahead to the relavent moment 🙁 Ended up listening to a Radiohead interview instead 🙂

  3. Ian says:

    It’s a bit rubbish really…

  4. Stephen says:

    I’m not keen, seems a bit bland to me.

  5. Bruce says:

    bad song lol… desplats soundtrack is way better. lyrics are bad too. I don’t normally listen to lyrics, but because the music is so bad I’m forced to listen to the lyrics which I don’t like.

  6. daemon_light says:

    I personally liked it… it’s better than Avril Lavigne. It is a bit repetative, but at least it is still pretty. I liked it a lot! I think it will go along with the film very smoothly… probably the most smoothly since Lord of the Rings. I think Eragon and Narnia (especially Eragon) haven’t had very much luck with the songs smoothly incorporated into the film.

  7. Megann says:

    Yeah, it’s not working for me- I’m in Canada, not the UK. Is there any way somebody could post the song apart from this??

  8. katherine says:

    that’s horribly disappointing. i would’ve rathered coldplay. :F

  9. Here’s a link to the real player, without all the DMCA “jump only 5 and 15 min and no rewind” nonsense. It allows you to scroll:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/shows/rpms/6music/6m_roundtable.rpm

    Someone has also put it up on YouTube with footage of the film:

    http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=6-jOEb0rN3Q

  10. Brian says:

    I was hoping for something more along the lines of Enya’s “May It Be” for LOTR, but it was pretty enough. Repetitive and a bit generic, but a nice sentiment that summed up the story. I especially love the lyric “two worlds collide around her”…

  11. Jamie Sutherland says:

    It wasn’t awful, but a bit weird, as per most of Kate Bush’s songs; but maybe, like them, this grows on you. Personally, I thought it seemed like lazy song writing. It was repetitive, with very child-like lyrics.

    Daemon Light, it’s better than Avril Lavigne? Have I missed something? What has that got to do with anything, or were you just being purposefully random?

  12. Stuart says:

    It’s a pretty enough filler to run under the credits, but hardly a classic Kate Bush track, and definitely not in the League of Cathy or Babushka. My guess is she probably ran it off in half an hour and got paid ridiculous amounts of money.

    Fortunately it has no impact whatsoever on the movie itself (at least I hope not) so any further comment is really superfluous.

  13. bcroft919 says:

    Not a huge Narnia fan (I’ve just seen the movie and know a bit about the books) but personally I loved Imogen Heap’s song that ran with the credits… Wish we would have gotten something along those lines… Kate’s song is wayyy to simple and a bit annoying after a while!

  14. Bettina says:

    I’m a huge KB fan, and this is the 1st time she’s written a song specifically for a movie. I am disappointed, but will live. 😉
    Kate is just so much better when she feeds songs from her own imagination instead of somebody else’s. I read somewhere that she met with Pullman and (supposedly) has read his trilogy.

  15. Bettina says:

    Ooops, got kicked out. I guess she could have done better, having met with the author – and probably having seen tons of footage or even a rough cut of the finished movie.

  16. Michelle says:

    Dull.

    come one Newline, I expected something more badass.

  17. Lyra&Pan says:

    daemon_light: What has Avril Lavigne to do with it ?

    God it’s awful !! I simply hate it !! I expected something better from Kate bush… I always thought Coldplay wouldn’t be good, but they can make better than [i]that[/i]..

  18. Gareth says:

    I really like it! I think it suits really well, certainly captures the mood of the books for me anyway. I quite often like music that hardly anyone else likes…

  19. john [2] says:

    yeah not too fond of this :s
    hmmmmmm … a bit “im going to google rhyming words to do with lyra, and wahtever else i want in this song”
    .. like rhyming for the sake of rhyming . a do not like .
    they shuda got imogen heap to do it, like she did for narnia . shes the best . even funnier, they cuda done an other-world version of kate nash or lily allen 😛 [to sing]

    wuda bin bare good 😉

    hmmmm bt i guess kate bushs reminds me a little of the lotr song .. bt its just a bit .. bland? doesnt hold any spirit within it . oh, i rhymed! perhaps i should write the song for it 😉
    xx

  20. john [2] says:

    WOW, whoever gareth is, we wer basically on this page at exactly the same time! ..simple things…

  21. rook says:

    I think it’s a beautiful song, maybe it’s not commercial enough for some of you people?

  22. ian says:

    I’m glad it’s only for the credits. I just hope they don’t have an after- credit scene, because that would be horrible.

  23. katherine says:

    i think a band like sigur ros, anathallo, maybe even like bjork or the secret machines or doves or something.. i think they could’ve done something at least a little more attention-grabbing. i’m usually drawn to different-sounding songs.. but this one’s just too dull. i’m not a huge fan of kate bush to begin with, but i dunno, i expected a little more than this. :\

    oh well, i guess it’s not that big of a deal, truth be told, hahaha.

  24. Gabzie says:

    I think the song sounds beautiful, and very mysterious. You’re all just being WAY too critical. =/

  25. pan_fan says:

    this sucks…a lot. its making me feel depressed. imogen heap was so much better when she sang for the narnia film. and the lyrics suck. and its just dreadful. eew. why cant coldplay do it???? it would be soooooo much better.

  26. Kyrillion says:

    Sucks rather. I was expecting something like ‘Northern! Northern! Northern Lights! Iorek, it’s me, it’s Lyra I’ve come hoooome now…’

  27. Tara says:

    Not a fan. The lyrics aren’t great and while Kate’s voice is pleasing enough, it has very little structure and an unusual. airy rhythm. It also doesn’t grow, in that it sounds exactly the same all the way through – the sound doesn’t build or become more layered, it’s pretty much just her voice. As a result, it’s not a song you can sing along with or tap your foot to, and the melody is nice but entirely forgettable. In a word, it’s boring. I’m a bit disappointed, given the rumours that we could have had a Coldplay tune.

  28. Wiezel says:

    Wake up everybody! Coldplay wouldn’t do a better song. It will sound a pop that much. You are all expecting something more, and more…
    The music is good. The movie won’t be powerful than LOTR, but it hope from TGC something more than Narnia’ trash.
    I read the three books in 2000. I am a big fan.

  29. Amy G. says:

    Music-wise, like “Into The West” from LOTR, I think it’s perfectly appropriate for the credits sequence. If taken in context, after all the action and intensity of the last few scenes, it would be nice to have something soothing like this to listen to so I could afford to think about what I saw. The lyrics are a little too on-the-nose, but it’s easily forgivable.

    I’m kind of glad it wasn’t Coldplay, actually. It would pull me out of the movie experience to leave the theatre with a rock song/ballad…

  30. holl says:

    god bjork wouldve been fantastic katharine!

    i dont think its that bad…bit lazy but beats enya anyday

  31. Berkeley says:

    That “full of grace” line will piss off the Magisterium, anyway. Ave!

  32. Amy T. says:

    Kyrillion said: “Sucks rather. I was expecting something like ‘Northern! Northern! Northern Lights! Iorek, it’s me, it’s Lyra I’ve come hoooome now…’”

    Hahaha! Wuthering heights! This cracked me up, thanks.

  33. daemon_light says:

    Shout out to Jamie!!

    I was refering to Avril Lavigne making a song for Eragon… haha, that probably seemed really random.

  34. daemon_light says:

    Oh that last post is for for Lyra&Pan too…

    Again, about the song, I think that it is not terribly inventive (especially for Kate Bush.) But I think it will work nicely, and its not the end of the world.

  35. This is actually the third song Kate has written specifically for a film. The first was “This Woman’s Work” for the John Hughes film “She’s Having A Baby”, and the second was for Disney’s “Dinosaur” but it was not in the final cut.

  36. Ben/Hoobits says:

    Just plain boring in my book.

  37. Greg Duncan says:

    Honestly, even though I havent seen the movie, I can say that this song doesnt fit. It doesnt do too much for me, and hearing it, I was a bit disappointed. Lets just hope they come up with a different song.

  38. Phil says:

    It’s okay. Tolerable, but it doesn’t do too much for me. Like someone else mentioned, I think it would have a better impact after watching the movie. I think it might also benefit from not mentioning “Lyra” in almost every verse. Her voice suits it, though. I generally like anything, but some stuff just has to take some time to grow on me.

  39. Nick says:

    I think it should sound quite a bit better and more atmospheric at a higher bitrate.

    The beginning of the song is great, but of course it is initially disappointing that it doesn’t grow into anything. It is not quite as good as songs from Aerial were, but it will suit the end-titles well — I’m sure the main theme from the soundtrack will play there aswell, so a more tantric song like this provides an agreeable contrast.

  40. Nick says:

    If you get over the ‘boring and bland’- feeling, analyse a bit less, and just let the music flow, this is actually a genius song. I’m liking it already — it grows on you.

    However, with these kinds of songs, a clear and clean background is important in creating the atmosphere, so the crappy bitrate wrecks it. The background does develop during the song… so it is actually not the same from start to finish.

  41. Cvalda says:

    The lyrics are rather weak, especially for someone as brilliant as Kate to have written them. It’s like she wrote them in two minutes because they paid her. Ditto for the song itself.
    But her vocals are great, and it’s beautiful overall. Sounds like a lost cut from ‘Aerial’. And WTF is with people saying it doesn’t “fit the film”? It’s mysterious and has a choir – what did you expect it to be? A guitar rock power ballad?! It fits perfectly.

  42. Nick says:

    I always thought this song would be good for the third movie: http://youtube.com/watch?v=8Urz2NFjZpg

    Relive the old sin of Adam and Eve
    Of you and me
    Forgive the adoring beast

  43. sava says:

    I think its a bloody fantastic job if I say so myself!!!

    Kate is a true artist through and through her work develops like a painters painting and I really believe this song captures a warm, relaxing mood along side conveying a story, after all it’s also for a childrens film!

    Whats everybody want F*** this and that, bang bang bang music? Thats for artist who can not think of anything better to write or say.

    Kate Bush is supreme of all singer song writers artist.

    An amazing wonderful classic! Good on Kate B!!

  44. Matt says:

    I can’t believe some of you people, Coldplay could do better?! Have you heard any Kate Bush before? She’s one of the most critically acclaimed british female artists ever!

    Personally I think this is an amazing song in the context of the movie, some of you are forgetting this is an end credits song, not some catchy pop song. The generic comments just don’t cut it with me either, this is typical Kate Bush, doing her own thing, the song has a nice ambiance about it, i can imagine it fitting perfectly into place…

    I can’t think of anything worse than a boring rock band like Coldplay doing a track to a mystical, deep fantasy movie! Well… maybe Avril Lavigne could be worse 🙂

  45. Pingback: Lyra « Experiment IV

  46. Gareth says:

    This is written and produced to compliment the end credits after Lyra’s story. In that context it works very well. Kate Bush has written every type of song and has had dozens of chart hits – this really is deliberate subtle soundtrack material though. Excellent vocal.

  47. Steph says:

    Well I don’t like Kate Bush’s voice, but I don’t think I’d like this song anyway no matter who sang it.

  48. Racel says:

    I love her voice – this is simply a beautiful piece to what I hope is a great movie

  49. pro says:

    Whilst I will admit to being a fan of kate’s work since the 70’s – this song hasn’t grabbed me – but as another poster suggested – these things do grow on one and I can remember when ‘suspended in gaffa’ was my least favourite song – now it’s on the top of my kate playlist.

    I will reserve judgement myself until I give it some listens in a more real world context.

    Perhaps kate had certain parameters to work and perhaps she isn’t completely the owner of the work in the end as far as residuals etc – so maybe that is a factor too. Better to keep your good ideas for your own albums.

  50. Barbra says:

    Kate is a babe with the coolest retro sounds around but this sounds almost maternal to me. I think we all really need to see the film now and find out where her energy for this came from. Have you guys heard the scary spooky Kate songs? I love the stories she tells in some of her more commercial stuff. The voice is always magical though.