The Alternative Olympic Soundtrack

It's impossible to not compare Scottish indie pop band Belle and Sebastian unnofficial Olympics theme song, "Olympic Village, 6AM", with Katy Perry's "Rise" and other similarly anthemic songs produced with stadium-packed sports events in mind. The purely instrumental track creates a whimsical, bouncy feeling around a progressive guitar and kooky keyboards. The expected energy and momentum is there, but there isn't any of the typical bombast or grandiosity (no pontificating about doubt, victory, success or triumph over adversity here). It seems as though it was recorded with the general light-headedness and surrealism that might preceed an athlete's big event (after years of intense training and preparation) in mind. 

A music video featuring archived (and somewhat kitschy-yet-inspiring) footage of old-school Olympic Games has been released, and guitarist Stuart Murdoch has detailed the band's intentions for the track in the description for the video:

"Belle & Sebastian dig the Olympics, love the Olympic ideal, love that the world gets together for a big “sports day” once every four years. We can’t be part of it, though we’d like to be. So we recorded a piece of music with Rio in mind, specifically the Track and Field in mind".