"The Big Unknown" is a song by the English band Sade released in 2018. The song is featured in the motion picture ''

Widows A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died and has usually not remarried. The male form, "widower", is first attested in the 14th century, by the 19th century supplanting "widow" with reference to men. The adjecti ...

'' directed by

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of counterculture of the 1960s, 1960s counterculture, made him a top box office draw for his films of the late ...

and centered on four women forced to pull off a robbery to pay a large criminal debt left behind by their late husbands. The film, which was adapted from the UK crime series of the same name, stars

Viola Davis Viola Davis ( ; born August 11, 1965) is an American actress and film producer. List of awards and nominations received by Viola Davis, Her accolades include both the Triple Crown of Acting and EGOT. ''Time (magazine), Time'' named her one of ...

Daniel Kaluuya Daniel Kaluuya (; born 24 February 1989) is an English actor. His work encompasses both screen and stage, and List of awards and nominations received by Daniel Kaluuya, his accolades include an Academy Awards, Academy Award, two British Academy ...

, and

Robert Duvall Robert Selden Duvall (; born January 5, 1931) is an American actor. With a career spanning seven decades, he is regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. He has received an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy Film Awards ...

. Along with the songs by Sade and

Nina Simone Nina Simone ( ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and po ...

(" Wild Is the Wind"), the official soundtrack to ''Widows'' features an original score written by

Hans Zimmer Hans Florian Zimmer (; born 12 September 1957) is a German film score composer and music producer. He has won two Academy Awards, a BAFTA Award, five Grammy Awards, and has been nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards and a Tony ...

Background

The song is Sade's second soundtrack contribution in 2018. Earlier that year, her song " Flower of the Universe" appeared in the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

film ''

A Wrinkle in Time ''A Wrinkle in Time'' is a young adult science fantasy novel written by American author Madeleine L'Engle. First published in 1962, the book won the Newbery Medal, the Sequoyah Book Award and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and was runner-u ...

''. That tracks marked the singer's first new songs since 2011. According to a press release, director Steve McQueen had conversations with Sade about the movie and asked her to write a song about "loss and survival". In his interview to ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' he stated that "Sade is an incomparable talent and incredible artist who so rarely releases new material, but luckily the original series of ''Widows'' had deeply resonated with her.”

Reception

Chris DeVille of ''

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'' commented "The Big Unknown" ..is a song that puts Sade's myriad imitators to shame — a minor-key ballad that manages to land some heavy emotional blows despite its impeccably tasteful lite production." Lars Gotrich of

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

wrote "But as Sade does, "The Big Unknown" bottles a sadness that is both overwhelming and resolute, determined to make the world right, but understands that grief forever breaks our bodies and souls." Dominiq Robinson of AXS noted "

he song He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

radiates melancholy vibes as Sade's warm voice floats over slow-tempo piano chords and heavy bass. The drums appropriately take a backseat to the vocal and melody tracks allowing Sade to emote the somber lyrical content of one attempting to withdraw themselves from slipping into the depths of depression and mental anguish. The song intensifies throughout the chorus, with the help of clashing of cymbals, string progressions, electric guitar harmonies, and punchy piano melodies. Towards the end of the track, Sade displays her vocal range bringing the song to a beautiful climax before it ultimately ends back in a bleak atmosphere."

Track listing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Big Unknown 2018 singles 2018 songs Sade (band) songs Songs written by Sade (singer) 2010s ballads Soul ballads