Yellowjackets Season 2 Official Soundtrack
by Kevin Wierzbicki
Showtime's hit show "Yellowjackets" is a very dark drama so it's no surprise that the music that's attached to the show generally lives on the dark side as well. The show is about what a group of female high school soccer players had to do to survive after their plane crashed in 1996 in a remote Canadian forest, including indulging in cannibalism, and how their lives are understandably still affected by the event 25 years after they've been rescued. Most of the songs here are hits or familiar tracks and many are from the early to mid- 1990's in keeping with the fact that one of the show's dueling plotlines is set then. Among these are Veruca Salt's "Seether," Live's "Lightning Crashes," "Zombie" by the Cranberries, Garbage's "#1 Crush," "What's Up?" by 4 Non Blondes, "Sorted for E's and Wizz" by Pulp, Elliot Smith's "Pitseleh" and, while not their most famous track, Nirvana's "Something in the Way." Included material from the 2000's include the quite appropriate "Last Resort" by Papa Roach, "Necking" by Big Mouth and "The Killing Moon" by Nouvelle Vague featuring Melanie Pain. There's an oldie thrown in too; the punnily-titled "Angst in My Pants" by Sparks, a blast from the past that originally came out in 1982. So there's a real nice set of vintage music here but the main draw for many may be the four new songs recorded in 2023 especially for the series: a slowed down and dramatic version of the No Doubt hit "Just a Girl" by Florence + The Machine," the brief and Broadway-esque "Sit Right Down" by John Cameron Mitchell with Elijah Wood, Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker and two versions of "No Return" by Alanis Morissette that bookend the set. The first version of "No Return," an extended mix, opens the soundtrack and finds Morissette rocking a heavy groove that occasionally gives way to an ethereal chant. The second version is called "No Return (Lottie's Dream)" and it is completely different except for the chanted chorus, with the remainder of the song being trippy and indeed, dreamlike.
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