Photo by Burak Cingi/Redferns
On “Hold You Now,” the opener to their new album Father of the Bride, samples “God Yu Takem Laef Blong Mi” from the war film The Thin Red Line. The music is performed by a Melanesian choir and is part of Hans Zimmer’s score, which was nominated for a 1999 Academy Award.
The song is a duet about an erratic, on-again, off-again relationship between two lovers. During the second verse, Ezra Koenig sings:
Leaving on your wedding day, all calm and dressed in white
All I’ll keep’s the memory of one last crooked night
The pews are getting filled up, the organ’s playing loud
I can’t carry you forever, but I can hold you now
The Thin Red Line is a World War II film focused on a 1940s battle between the U.S. and Japan that was written and directed by Terrence Malick. It features several Melanesian chants which were performed by the Choir of All Saints from Honiara in the Solomon Islands and the Melanesian Brotherhood in Tabalia, which is their headquarters. “God Yu Takem Laef Blong Mi” is the only choral song to have appeared on the original soundtrack despite several being featured in the film, though eventually they were released on their own.
Singer Danielle Haim, who also appears on Father of the Bride’s “Married in a Gold Rush” and “We Belong Together,” told Pitchfork about how she wound up on the song.
“When [Ezra] started talking about his new album, he showed me, I think it was, “Hold You Now.” He was like, “Maybe it should be like a duet,” and I was like, “Oh my god, anything I can help with, I’m so down.” That was the first song we officially started working together on.”
Father of the Bride also includes a sample on the song “2021” of the Japanese musician Haruomi Hosono’s 1984 song “Talking.” Vampire Weekend has also sampled on older songs like “Step” and “Diplomat’s Son.”
In the video below, Genius explored the history of horror film samples in rap music.
Read the full lyrics to “Hold You Now” and the rest of Vampire Weekend’s discography on Genius now.
