Bleep

The legacy of Q Lazzarus’ ‘Goodbye Horses’ is an enigmatic and enduring one. Its fateful inclusion in a key scene from Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs has enshrined it in public consciousness forevermore, later finding itself in the furthest of places like soundtracks for Grand Theft Auto IV and Skate 3, countless covers by MGMT, ††† (Crosses), Jon Hopkins, and Hayden Thorpe, among constant pop cultural references. But before all of that was a song so immediately, uniquely haunting and captivating, which Dark Entries Records revives with versions previously unreleased for over thirty years.

A synth siren slowly grows, ushering spacey guitar blips rich with melody, upon which Q Lazzarus’ smoky voice transforms through registers with ease, reaching from the depths of her husky lows to a climactic, soaring high. With catchy lyrics referencing Hindu philosophy, ‘Goodbye Horses’ is synthpop and new wave personality of the highest quality. Its instrumental edit reveals even more of its character: vigorous, punchy drum machines fit for a dance, simple upbeat synth pulses and brassy tones ready to carry Q Lazzarus’ vocals. So infatuated was Jonathan Demme when he heard the song that he included it on two of his film soundtracks (firstly 1988’s Married to the Mob), and it’s not hard to hear why.

When Demme met Q Lazzarus in her NYC taxi he was weathering a blizzard, before finding the storm of her music as she presented her demo tape. That long awaited treasure trove collection of songs arrived in 2025, coinciding with Eva Aridjis Fuentes’s eponymous, equally acclaimed documentary Goodbye Horses: The Many Lives of Q Lazzarus, and includes the house tinged dark art pop of ‘Hellfire’, with syrupy synth bass and bewitching backing vocals reinforcing her powerful delivery and sly spoken word, “Don’t touch me unless I let you. ‘Can I worship you? Sure.” ‘Summertime’ meanwhile flips a Gershwin standard into reggae inflected keys for Q Lazzarus to beautifully bellow over.

Perhaps one of the best examples of a cult classic song, Q Lazzarus’s ‘Goodbye Horses’ is lovingly renewed as her life is duly celebrated.