Listen to Portishead’s ‘Only You’ from The Handmaid’s Tale — a dark, trippy track perfect for a dystopian world

British trip hop/experimental pop band Portishead’s ‘Only You‘ was one of the tracks featured on the Hulu dystopian drama series The Handmaid’s Tale this week — The Handmaid’s Tale, Season 3, Episode 11, “Liars“.

The dark, trippy track was played as we see June arriving at Jezebel’s, and then negotiating with the bartender. It is the perfect track for that depressing, dystopian world.

Only You‘ was originally released in 1998, and is from Portishead’s self-titled second studio album. It was written by lead vocalist Beth Gibbons, and band members Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley.

The song was released as the third single from the album.

Interestingly, while ultimately charting in only four countries — the UK, Australia, Russia and New Zealand — it did particularly well in Russia, where it made it to the 12th spot on the Russian charts.

The album itself, however, reached the number 2 spot on the UK album charts, and number 21 in the U.S.

Listen to Portishead’s ‘Only You‘ from The Handmaid’s Tale in the track’s official music video below.

The video has Beth Gibbons and a young boy floating around in a dark alley in an almost dream-like state. The effect was achieved by filming the two swimming in a tank and then superimposing them onto other film footage.

You can hear the band’s second studio album, where the song originated, in the Spotify widget below that.

From the same episode: Listen to Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting‘ from The Handmaid’s Tale

About Michelle Topham

I'm a Brit-American journalist, former radio DJ at 97X WOXY, and Founder/CEO of Leo Sigh. I'm also obsessed with music, anime, manga, and K-dramas. Help!