I Shall Rise

Album: Not released on an album (2015)
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Songfacts®:

  • Karen O penned this haunting song for the video game Rise Of The Tomb Raider. When she originally set out with producer Tristan Bechet to create the song, O hoped to create an anthem similar to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive."

    "I always wanted to do my version of that and this was it," O told Rolling Stone. "It all sounded really tasty."

    "They wanted drama and high-stakes and melodrama," she continued. "That was very appealing to me because I love making music connected to a storyline. It was all stuff I loved like having the theme song to [Lara Croft] becoming an icon and the creation myth to the moment she becomes Lara."
  • Karen use Lara Croft as her muse to portray a defiant woman.

    They'll know my name
    After the storms are passing through
    They'll know my name
    When they've forgotten all about you


    O also found inspiration at the christening of a relative's daughter. "I picked up a Book of Hymns, thumbed through it and was really into how much melodrama there was," she said. "It could be the half-Korean part of me; Koreans love melodrama. That sparked some inspiration for the lyrics to this with the themes of survival against the elements and the transformation of being reborn. The melodrama of the Biblical stuff is a lot to sink your teeth into."

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