Listen to River of Roses (Click)
River of Roses represents the high point of both Riley & Rochelle's artistry and their romance. I knew that I wanted this song to be grand, sweeping, powerful and full of longing. Coming from 1998 and written by Riley, I also wanted to bring in elements from one of my favourite bands - Radiohead, who at that point had released OK Computer. It is, in my opinion, one of the high points of the soundtrack and a song I'm very proud of.
The Story
River of Roses is based on a four-chord loop that cycles throughout the entire song. The loop is a minor descending pattern that you can hear in songs from Fever to Feeling Good. These sorts of patterns are the bedrock of much pop music, but can also risk becoming repetitive when paired with a melody that does not evolve sufficiently.
To balance this out, Riley's melody goes through several stages, growing in intensity each time. Every 4 cycles or so, Riley goes up several measures in his register and new instruments come in. This adds variety to an otherwise static background.
Rochelle is also introduced to the song in a very deliberate manner. She first enters as Riley's duet partner with wordless vocalisations, finally transforming into a full duet as the chorus hits. It is as if she is moving from ghost to person as the chorus hits.
The song is structurally distinctive because of a very late chorus. In pop music, choruses typically come in at the 55-second mark, but River of Roses' chorus doesn't come into until 2 minutes 30 seconds. To my ears, this works because of the steady building the song goes through, so that, when it arrives, it feels very significant. This is used in songs like 'We Built this City' by Jefferson Starship to a similar effect.
Production
River of Roses has the most sonically detailed production on the soundtrack and would have been considered quite advanced for its time. Indeed, one of the benefits of hindsight is the ability to use some instruments associated with bands like Radiohead that they weren't using at the time, such as the Ondes-Martenot, a primitive synth that did not surface until Kid A. You can hear its haunting theremin-like tone in the intro to River of Roses.
The song combines acoustic elements (acoustic guitar, drums, bass, percussion) with more affected signals that are gradually introduced as the track builds. These include the Ondes, the shimmering string synth and a heavily phased electric guitar. With the latter, I wanted to capture Jonny Greenwood's tone from the intro of Subterranean Homesick Alien. The clean electric guitar is done in the style of both Radiohead and my favourite guitarist - the Smiths' Johnny Marr. The track also brings in more esoteric instruments, such as the Medieval psaltery in the post-chorus bridge and the Norwegian pizzicato string instruments in the outro, both more redolent of a Bjork record. It's a real soup of the late 90s, and early 2000s Post-rock elements.