The Alternative ‘Suicide Squad’ Soundtrack – The Five Best Songs You Actually Hear In The Film

The official Suicide Squad soundtrack may contain brilliant new tunes from Grimes, Mark Ronson and Kehlani, but the film itself also contains music choices that dovetail perfectly with the scenes they soundtrack. The film’s about a group of DC Comics villains who get press-ganged into working for the government to fight evil forces. So, keeping spoilers to a minimum, we’ve picked out five key moments where unruly music met the rebellious film in beautiful disharmony.

1. Rick James – ‘Super Freak’

The first time we see the mad ex-psychotherapist Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), she’s hanging like a trapeze artist from what looks like a torn-up straitjacket. She’s also inside an electrified cage. She has a razor blade stored somewhere terrifying and she’s capable of taking down guards twice her size. Super-freak doesn’t cover it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goV2lOcgQTY

2. Kanye West – ‘Black Skinhead’

The first time Will Smith’s assassin character, Deadshot, gets to show his bullseye-blasting chops with a load of guns, he’s soundtracked by this breathless sprint of a rap from Kanye, which ends in him shouting “God!” over and over again. Fits pretty well.

3. The White Stripes – ‘Seven Nation Army’

Advertisement

What’s clever about this song is not only that it appears during the first real formation of the squad – or ‘mini-army’ as we’ll also refer to them – but also that there’s seven of them: Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), Slipknot (Adam Beach) and the only good guy on the team, ringleader Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman). But then his mate Katana (Karen Fukuhara) turns up and kind of ruins it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScyHzVlbDBc

4. Eminem – ‘Without Me’

This track crops up when the villains are putting their evil costumes on and choosing their weapons. There are few tracks that fit better with the costuming process than this one – not least because in the official video Eminem marks his return by getting into his own superhero costume. In the film, it’s a moment of self-aware, irreverent genius.

5. Norman Greenbaum – ‘Spirit In The Sky’

This track, one that’s played at a surprising number of funerals, is what plays when the villains head to fight the main supervillain. Harley Quinn, in particular, is pretty excited in the face of almost certain death – a sentiment that fits pretty perfectly with this track.

You May Also Like

Advertisement

TRENDING

Advertisement

More Stories