Taking me completely by surprise, “Running the World” by Jarvis Cocker is one of the coolest songs I’ve heard in a very long time.  I’ll leave it to you to figure out exactly what he’s saying (it’s NSFW).  The lyrics are just plain awesome.  This kind of song grabs a hold of the part of me that appreciates the beauty of sadness.  I’m not sure which I appreciate more:  the beauty of sadness or the beauty of majesty.  The beauty I appreciate most of all is self-sacrifice.  I can’t see it without struggling really hard to not cry.  Another song that uses the beauty of sadness is “Mad World” (the remake by Gary Jules from Donnie Darko).

I happened upon the song because I was searching for a clip of a scene near the end of Children of Men.  So as not to spoil anything for the random reader who hasn’t seen the movie, it’s a moment of peace in the chaos, the characters are filled with a profound awe, and it is broken by intense violence (it also appears briefly in the clip below).  This video appears to be promotional material used to influence the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) people to nominate it for Best Picture.  It didn’t win anything, since the Academy is full of crap.

Enjoy.  Oh and the video contains spoilers (and is NSFW).