Shay Mehr on January 27th, 2017

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Scottish trio Young Fathers shared a new track this week, “Only God Knows,” one of three of their tunes to appear on the “T2 Trainspotting” soundtrack — and a song filmmaker Danny Boyle describes as the movie’s “heartbeat.” It’s the first new music from Alloysious Massaquoi, Kayus Bankole and “G” Hastings since their 2015 sophomore album “White Men Are Black Men Too,” a stylistic shift from their 2014 debut but no less riveting. The song arrives after a year-plus of touring after the trio’s Mercury Prize win, and after Young Fathers met author Irvine Welsh and were discovered by Boyle. “Only God Knows” was originally demoed in L.A. with producer Dave Sitek, but the trio wanted to finish the track with the Leith Congregational Choir (whom the trio had employed on their remix of Paul Weller’s 2015 single “Saturns Pattern”) Here, Young Fathers continue their inscrutable magic, juxtaposing a soaring gospel choir perfectly with punk verses, which are in keeping their past themes. The repetition of the lines “only God knows” and “anything I do” seem to affirm that even crumbling characters can still attain a sort of salvation by declaring that the weight of their vices rest with a higher power. Young Fathers’ recognizable playfully sinister tone and frantic beats truly fit the dark, manic honesty of the film — which also features songs by Blondie, Iggy Pop, the Clash, High Contrast, Underworld, Wolf Alice and Queen.

||| Stream: “Only God Knows”