In 2020, the documentary “The Social Dilemma” was released and chosen for official selection in the Sundance Film Festival. The subsequent soundtrack release featured a new track featuring Brandi Carlile and Renée Elise Goldsberry. (the actual film used Nina Simone’s version).
About the film:
On the film’s official website it says
“The Social Dilemma blends documentary investigation and narrative drama to disrupt the disrupters, unveiling the hidden machinations behind everyone’s favorite social media and search platforms.”
The Netflix site says “This documentary-drama hybrid explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations.”
In the Wikipedia about the film it says “The film also examines social media’s effect on mental health, in particular, the mental health of adolescents and rising teen suicide rates.”
The Song:
Not released in the actual film, but released on the soundtrack as the film was rolled out on various platforms was the Brandi Carlile and Renée Elise Goldsberry (of Hamilton fame) cover of I Put a Spell on You
In the exclusive Variety story at the time, Chris Willman wrote:
The part-documentary/part-drama “The Social Dilemma” deals in part with the spell that Silicon Valley tech companies have cast over a willingly mesmerized populace, and so Nina Simone’s version of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ classic “I Put a Spell on You” was brought in as a musical accent mark for the film. For the soundtrack album, producers thought that maybe a new and lyrically updated version of the tune could be hypnotic in its own right.
That led to recruiting the surprising team of Brandi Carlile, the singer/songwriter who has come to be a recent Grammy queen, and Renée Elise Goldsberry, the singer and actor best known for her Tony-winning performances as the fiery Angelica Schuyler. They recorded a new version of “I Put a Spell on You,” not heard in the recently released film but debuting on the album that comes out Friday. Variety is hosting the exclusive track premiere in advance of its official bow on digital service providers.
Carlile handles the more familiar part of the bluesy Hawkins/Simone perennial, while Goldsberry eventually enters with a newly written, more provocative and topical verse that almost steers the classic toward a hip-hop feel with its spit-fire rhymes about a tech realm gone wrong.
”I loved ‘The Social Dilemma’ and was thrilled they asked me to sing this song,” Carlile says, “especially with the incomparable Renée Elise Goldsberry. I hope this soundtrack continues to bring attention to the film, which I think is so important.”
Says Goldsberry, “‘The Social Dilemma’ confirmed some of my greatest fears about social media, and added a few. I jumped at the chance to collaborate with the great Brandi Carlile and Mark Crawford to amplify the film’s haunting message. Now that we know the truth, will we insist on reform? Or remain spellbound, bought and sold?”
Read more from the Variety article here
You can listen to the single at one of these services here;
https://smarturl.it/tsd-single
