Charismatic Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O has written a song for the new Tomb Raider game Rise Of The Tomb Raider. Titled “I Shall Rise”, the song sees O embracing her inner drama queen in a high tension and histrionic performance underscoring the rise of Tomb Raider’s leading lady and digital heart-throb Lara Croft.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, she explained what influenced her while writing the song. “You know how Gloria Gaynor has her I Will Survive? I always wanted to do my version of that and this was it,” she said.
“I think they wanted to bring on the melodrama. They wanted something emotional with a dramatic build. It’s kind of the theme of Lara’s creation myth, the moment that defines her becoming an icon. It was really juicy stuff for me. I’m really into making melodramatic songs.”
Hardly her first outing outside the music industry, Karen O’s work on Rise Of The Tomb Raider follows on from her diverse work in film and theatre. She wrote an Opera called Stop The Virgens a few years back, and has contributed to numerous film soundtracks, working with Trent Reznor on the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo , as well as with Spike Jonze on Where The Wild Things Are and Her, O receiving an Oscar nomination for her work on the latter.
This is nevertheless her first foray into the world of video games, O ticking off another box on her list of musical adventures. Anyway, you check the track out for yourself here below.
Listen: Karen O – I Shall Rise
