The 'Peaky Blinders' Season 6 Soundtrack Is a Gothic Rock Opera
The word circulating set during the filming of Peaky Blinders Season 6 was “gothic”—big emotions, big themes, big everything. Another word was “dark.” Which is how star Cillian Murphy also described the season. More specifically: “dark as fuck.” Season 6 would be big and dark as fuck.
That tone would require an appropriate soundtrack. While previous seasons leaned mostly on hard rock hits, there has always been a touch of gothic, too. This season, however, makes that gothic root more apparent.
To help with all this melancholia, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead contributed original music. (If you're looking for that one song in Episode 6 when Tommy and Arthur embrace, it's called "Teleharmonic Phaser" by Yorke and Greenwood's band The Smile; the song is currently unreleased.) Meanwhile, Anna Calvi teamed up with Bad Seeds producer Nick Launay for the season’s score.
Show creator Steven Knight told NME why he’s consistently chosen contemporary music for the series, which in its sixth season takes place in 1934.
“It’s still the dreamscape that allows certain emotions to happen, while at other times it’s contrasting with what’s going on. It’s the bridge between a period drama and a modern audience. It gives you that emotion that you recognize. The people who were living then have the same emotions that we do now, but just in different clothes.”
And great clothes at that.
What's the Peaky Blinders Theme Song?
The series theme song is “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. It introduces each episode with a shot of gothic rock. Interestingly, “Red right Hand” is absent from the show’s opening this season; instead, we hear softer covers of the song, in keeping with the season’s more somber tone. The story of Tommy Shelby is slowing, coming to an end.
Here’s every song featured in the Peaky Blinders Season 6 soundtrack.
Episode 1
“Disorder” by Joy Division
“Sixteen Men Swinging” by Count Basie
“Ain’t No Grave” by Anna Calvi
“Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Episode 2
“Nessum dorma!” by Giacomo Puccini
“You’re Not God” by Anna Calvi
“There Ain’t No Grave” by Anna Calvi
Episode 3
“Miracle” by Bambara
“Kill Them With Kindness” by Idles
“5.17” by Thom Yorke
Episode 4
“In This Heart” by Sinead O’Connor
“Lullaby For Cain” by Sinead O’Connor
“Stone Towers” by Dol Ikara
“Blackbird” by Lisa O’Neill
“Do You Love Me?” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Episode 5
“Lawman” by Girl Band
“One Silver Dollar” by Marilyn Monroe
“Unmade” by Thom Yorke
“Red Right Hand” by PJ Harvey
Episode 6
“Requiem in D Minor, K. 626” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (performed by Redfunk-Sinfoneiorchester Berlin)
“Fight of the Foo Bids” by Count Basie
“Pana-Vision” by The Smile
“In Flames” by Lungley
“All the Tired Horses” by Lisa O’Neill
You Might Also Like