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CNN
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Of the many dark gifts that Showtime’s “Yellowjackets” has to offer, this season’s most fascinating is the music.
The show — which moves between a group of teenage soccer players trapped in the Canadian wilderness in the 1990s after a plane crash and the adult survivors in the present day — embraces nostalgia, incorporating long-cherished tunes from the turn of the last century, with staples from Tori Amos, the Smashing Pumpkins and Massive Attack, Veruca Salt, and more.
On Sunday’s episode of “Yellowjackets,” alternative rock queen Alanis Morissette will debut a version of the show’s theme song, “No Return,” which she has already released as a single.
One of the most unexpected and successful uses of throwback music came in the first episode of Season 2 last month, when Jeff Warren Cole had a moment for himself in the car after an intense tryst with his wife, Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) — during which he was dancing. Papa Roach’s “Last Resort” is hard to come by (sure, the track was actually released in 2000, but that doesn’t detract from its vintage feel).
In an interview with CNN, Nora Felder, the show’s music supervisor, explained that Papa Roach’s song selection was written, and “served as the perfect physical outlet for Warren, whose feelings of anxiety were mounting as he sat alone in his garage.”
However, other notable moments in the text have to translate, and Felder relishes the opportunity to match those moments with appropriate songs from the period.
“I re-immerse myself in the era and zeitgeist of the show when I start creating my own playlists for the show,” she said. “The main thing I try to keep in mind is to stay true to the story and let it tell me what it might need musically.”
Case in point, from the episode itself – the setting of Amos’ signature song “Cornflake Girl”, from her groundbreaking 1994 sophomore album “Under the Pink.”
The song — which appropriately contains the lyric “things are getting kind of gross” just as teenager Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) is about to comprehend something unthinkable — “came to Felder’s mind very quickly as a possibility.”
“I felt that Amos’s words could serve as a fitting starting point for the end of the first episode — not only as a reflection of Young Shauna’s state of mind,” she noted, “but also as a reflection of the past and present moods and mindsets she experienced.” By other “Yellowjackets” characters in Season 2.
Felder’s work is challenging in the sense that there is often an ideal wish-list choice for a song during a given moment in each script, which may then change either due to something technical or because the needs of the scene evolve during production, as well as the result of many elements, including the performance Actors.
“Everyone on the team always wants the best possible song choice to enhance the story,” she said. “When we get to post (production), a common question we have during the collaboration process is simply: ‘Do we think we can overcome this?’
During this collaborative process, Felder says she “doesn’t think there’s a set road map for how to integrate songs into any given scene or story.”
“I always say: Let the picture tell you what you need. (Kind of like wild I guess?)”
Another moment that blends perfectly with the music playing is the now famous “Last Supper” scene from last week’s episode two, which features Radiohead’s “Climbing By The Walls” from their amazing 1995 album OK Computer on the soundtrack.
“The song seems to refer to those unspeakable monsters that can live in one’s head,” Felder noted, referring to the strange mass hallucinations the group experiences while dismantling one. “I can’t think of a more perfect way to highlight this scene, also known as ‘The Feast.’”
To realize how important music is to the defining ambient feeling of “Yellowjackets,” one need look no further than the deeply creepy horror. Season 2 trailer For the show, which features Florence + The Machine’s exceptional and rousing performance of the immortal 1995 hit “No Doubt,”Just a girl.”
“I’m a huge fan of the Yellowjackets and this era of music, and this song in particular had a huge impact on me growing up, so I was thrilled when I was asked to interpret it in a ‘deeply unsettling’ way for the show,” Florence Welch, the band’s frontman, said in a statement shared with CNN.
“We really tried to add some horror elements to this theme song to fit the tone of the show. As someone whose first musical love was pop punk and Gwen Stefani, it was a dream job.”
In her collaboration with “Yellowjackets,” Morissette also felt inspired by the show.
“I see similarities between ‘Yellow Jackets’ and my perspective while writing songs: sheer intensity, going for the jugular without fear of going profane,” Morissette said in a statement. “I’ve done my best throughout my career to support women’s empowerment and sensitive people, and seeing the world through a female lens, and what’s great about this show is that each character is allowed to be dynamic and complex rather than oversimplified and concise versions of women. I feel proud to be part of the legacy The Yellow Vests.