The Umbrella Academy (Original Series Soundtrack) Jeff Russo Original Score 2019 Preview SONG TIME Russia 1989. 1:22 PREVIEW Sudden Birth. 1:36 PREVIEW Hazel and Cha Cha. 1:38 PREVIEW The Umbrella Academy. The Umbrella Academy - I Think We're Alone Now (Soundtrack) Tiffany.
The second season of The Umbrella Academy hit Netflix last Thursday and while fans were excited for the show's return to find out what's next for Hargreeves siblings, they were also excited for the season's soundtrack. The series' first season had a great batch of songs for fans to tap their toes to and the second season followed suit -- something fans were more than happy to take to social media to talk about just how great this second round of tunes is.
That fans are loving the soundtrack for the second season of The Umbrella Academy is, in a sense, a testament to the process that series showrunner Steve Blackman goes through in deciding what music gets used. He told ComicBook.com that he thinks of music as a character in the show -- and he even puts the music in the script.
Umbrella Academy’s soundtrack does a whole lot of the heavy-lifting when it comes to the show’s tone. For one thing, music is in Umbrella Academy’s DNA. The Umbrella Academy is a 'dysfunctional family of superheroes' coming together to solve the mystery of their “father’s” death. The corruption of one of their siblings and the threat of the apocalypse solidify their family ties.
'I'd say 90% of the songs, I've already decided before we ever get to this phase,' Blackman told ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview. 'I put them in the script, I encourage my writers to do it. Ultimately, I think music is a character in the show. I love music, music is my life, so I'm very sure about songs. Sometimes I have a song in my mind and then I know how to write the scene, rather than playing music that invokes emotion.'
He continued, 'I do it the other way, but also I know a lot of songs that I think, I like to counterpoint with what's going on, so sometimes we'll put like 'My Way' by Sinatra over the doomsday nuke scene, and you're like, 'How do they fit?' But they somehow magically do, and that's something we like to do in the show, that I think we do really originally. But I love picking those songs, and I have a great music supervisor who works with me too, on that.'
Read on for just how much fans are loving the soundtrack to the second season of The Umbrella Academy.
Both seasons of The Umbrella Academy are now streaming on Netflix.
Every song!
#TheUmbrellaAcademy has such an amazing soundtrack!!! Every song slaps! @UmbrellaAcadpic.twitter.com/0lo5xjy4ss
— S T R A V 🌒 (@waywardstrav) August 1, 2020prevnextUndefeated
Umbrella academy soundtrack remains undefeated pic.twitter.com/1wyY2TrkRq
— Marc (@MulleyMarc) August 1, 2020prevnextTruly amazing soundtrack
THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY SEASON 2 HAS AN AMAZING SOUNDTRACK!!!! #TheUmbrellaAcademypic.twitter.com/jF2THCyNVH
— dita ☂ 🌪 (@lanytears) August 1, 2020prevnextFire
Umbrella Academy season 2
is 🔥🔥🔥😭 and the soundtrack is awesome! #UmbrellaAcademy#UmbrellaAcademy2pic.twitter.com/WSab5OzgcQ
Umbrella Academy Soundtrack Episode 1
— Kelyane (@KeepSmilingMD) August 2, 2020prevnextIt slaps
@UmbrellaAcad season two soundtrack SLAPS. pic.twitter.com/nYZFUE79j9
— SG (@shanbancan) August 2, 2020prevnextWe need this on vinyl
The soundtrack to #UmbrellaAcademy NEEDS to be released on vinyl!! And whoever chose the music NEEDS an award!
— Josh Williams (@Brewmeisterjw) August 2, 2020prevnextAmazing
Wow. This season of @UmbrellaAcad is AMAZING. And just like the first, the soundtrack is absolute 🔥🔥
— leah (@_leahanne) August 2, 2020prevnextShould be illegal
The soundtrack and the sound editing for The Umbrella Academy season 2 are so good it should be illegal
— julz (@methodfailure) August 2, 2020prevnextThis
Honestly... The Umbrella Academy soundtrack is just... pic.twitter.com/a0ewp4xZqD
— Chappell (@Chappells_Show) August 2, 2020prevnextForget the pandemic
Umbrella Academy Soundtrack Cd
Honestly, the soundtrack for @UmbrellaAcad season 2 is so freakin’ good that I can almost forget for a moment or two that we’re mid-pandemic.
— Breanna Needham (@Breanna_Needham) August 1, 2020prevYou probably know Gerard Way best from his days as My Chemical Romance's frontman. Since the band's split in 2013, the musician has been focused on his comic series, The Umbrella Academy, for which a TV adaptation hits Netflix Feb. 15. He also released his debut solo album, Hesitant Alien, 2014 and a handful of other songs. And though Way didn't write new music for The Umbrella Academy's soundtrack, he did contribute covers of Simon and Garfunkel's 'Hazy Shade Of Winter' and The Turtles' 'Happy Together,' both featuring fellow MCR alum Ray Toro.
Plus, the show has a pretty incredible original score composed by Jeff Russo, who has written music for shows including Fargo, Star Trek: Discovery, and Power. When Syfy debuted The Umbrella Academy's title track earlier this month, Russo told the outlet that,'With such an eclectic group of characters, writing themes was super fun.' and that 'many different personalities got many different musical motifs and feelings.'
Aside from Russo's score and Way and Toro's tracks (which are kind of, sort of a mini-MCR reunion), the Umbrella Academy soundtrack includes songs from Three Dog Night, Bay City Rollers, They Might Be Giants, Radiohead, Queen, the Doors, and Nina Simone. It's a wide range of musical styles and eras very befitting of the aesthetics of both the Netflix series and the comic that inspired it.
And Way has already teased the possibility of him writing more music for The Umbrella Academy in the futur. 'There were very early conversations about me potentially scoring,' he recently told Billboard, 'but there was no way given my schedule that would work. But I'm sure down the line I’ll be covering more songs for the show.'
Umbrella Academy Soundtrack Vinyl
Way also said that shooting the series has already started to inspire new, original music that could appear in later seasons. He continued to Billboard:
Umbrella Academy Soundtrack Playlist
'When I was on set the very first day and we were watching the very first shot which was a scene between Ellen [Page, who plays Vanya] and Aidan [Gallagher, who plays Number Five], it's the very last shot of the pilot and they're talking about the end of the world and it's supposed to cut to black. And a song popped into my head for that, and I started writing this song that I ended up recording. I haven’t finished it yet, but it's a song I would love to give to the show.'
He further revealed that he didn't choose the songs on the soundtrack — screenwriter Steve Blackman wrote them into the script — but that the '80s and '90s were always part of his inspiration for the comics.
So while the My Chemical Romance frontman maybe hasn't contributed as much music to the Netflix series as you may have expected, there is a definite link between his music, tastes, and the world of The Umbrella Academy. Heck, as demonstrated in the gif above, umbrellas were a memorable part of the 'Helena' music video — it's clearly all connected.
Correction: This article has been updated to accurately reflect the original singers of 'Hazy Shade of Winter.'