Last year, S U R V I V E's Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein told me that creating the Stranger Things soundtrack was like writing a story in itself: "At the beginning, in the first episode you have to set up this is a perfect little town, everybody's having a great time, so you play up this childish wonder," Stein said. "Then everything goes to shit and it gets scary, so they kind of play off of each other."
As the show became the surprise hit of the summer, its music also became the biggest TV soundtrack of the year, propelling S U R V I V E to a national headlining tour and festival slots. The music, even independent from the show, served as a journey of romantic, nostalgic synths that went from pensive childlike wonder to pulsing races. And now, a week before the release of Season Two, they've shared the soundtrack for volume two.
They've nailed it again, with a whopping 34 new tracks from the upcoming season that can once again stand as their own as a brilliant piece of work. The soundtrack itself has its own arc, with the first 10 tracks as more of a brighter, curious take on the same synth patches from the the original. Like the mysterious Upside Down, it grows with some sort of mysterious tension, ending in climactic cliffhangers between each brief track—mostly clocking in at under a minute.
“In Season Two, we’re introducing new styles of composition, while still revisiting old themes when appropriate,” Dixon and Stein said in a statement last week. “We’ve created new elements that are necessary to support the story, but still want to remain true to the sound of Season One.”
As they envisioned it, the music here is a character of its own—one that builds in anxiety up to the bombastic, doom of "Descent into the Rift." Then there's the chaotic, chest-pounding "Looking for a Way Out," which is a more sinister take on the now-iconic opening theme. And honestly, it's up there with the best sci-fi soundtracks of the year, alongside the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack from Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch.
Hell, even if you're not a Stranger Things fan but someone who appreciates badass synth music, this is for you.
