The Complete '90s Banger Soundtrack to Showtime's Yellowjackets

You know how sometimes when you're starting a show it takes a little bit of time—sometimes it's just the pilot, sometimes it takes a few episodes, sometimes it's even the whole first season—for it to really figure out what it is and what it wants to do? Yellowjackets, Showtime's darkly comic mystery/drama/survival tale is definitively not that; from the very first sequences of the very first episode, it's clear that this is a show that's going to be dark, it's going to be creepy, it's going to be mysterious, and it's going to embrace the hell out of its storyline that originates back in 1996. And that means a whole lot of '90s staple jams that you'll hear and want to look up and play over and over and over again.

The show focuses on a New Jersey high school soccer team who are headed to Nationals in 1996; their plane crashes in an undisclosed forest, and, as a simultaneously-told present day storyline tells us, these girls spent 19 months foraging and surviving in the forest. But as the show's introduction scene—featuring costumes, death traps, and possible cannibalism in that very forest—shows us, there's much more to the story that we've yet to see.

The show's casting is perfect; the modern day cast of characters includes actors like Melanie Lynskey, Juliette Lewis, and Christina Ricci who made their names in the '90s, and their younger selves are all perfectly cast. The show also so perfectly leans into its Lord of the Flies meets Lost premise; the internet and Reddit and social media everywhere is going wild with theorizing.

But what we're here for right now is the show's soundtrack, which, frankly, rules. From alternative rock, to R+B, to hip-hop, the soundtrack is not only filled with songs you'll certainly want to add to your latest playlists, but just feel so immaculately selected and like a perfect time capsule to the era being depicted. One early episode features young Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) retreating to her room, while "Feel the Pain" by Dinosaur Jr. plays softly in the background; her friend tells her the (true) rumor that Kurt Cobain wanted J Mascis to join Nirvana. It all just feels very authentic, and the great songs are a bonus.

They may be some you already love, and, hell, maybe you'll find a new banger that you missed. At the very least, there's that Yellowjackets theme song that plays at the beginning of every episode—that's one to keep track of for sure.

Watch Yellowjackets on Showtime

Yellowjackets Theme: "No Return," - Craig Wedren and Anna Waronker

Episode 1, "Pilot"

"Today" - The Smashing Pumpkins

"Supernova" - Liz Phair

"Informer" - Snow

"Shoop" - Salt-N-Peppa

"Good Vibrations" - Marky Mark And The Funky Bunch

"What If…" - Dore Soul

"Let Me Find Out" - POS NEG

"Miss World" - Hole

"Counting Backwards" - Throwing Muses

"Down By The Water" - PJ Harvey

"Never Tear Us Apart" - Paloma Faith

Episode 2, "F Sharp"

"Mother Mother" - Tracy Bonham

"Hold On" - Wilson Phillips

"Cherished Nostalgia" - Devin S. Norris

"Medusa" - Noonday Devils

"Confetti" - Bien

"Kick It" - Peaches

"Glory Box" - Portishead

Episode 3, "The Dollhouse"

"Mr. Mistoffelees" - Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cats Original Broadway Cast

"Cambodia" - Kim Wilde

"Dreams" - The Cranberries

"Grandma’s Hands" - Bill Withers

"Vienna" - Ultravox

Episode 4, "Bear Down"

"Mountain Song" - Jane’s Addiction

"Breakfast At Tiffany’s" - Deep Blue Something

"Feel the Pain" - Dinosaur Jr.

"Maid in China" - The Father Figures

"So Alive" - Love and Rockets

"Ready to Go" - Republica

Episode 5, "Blood Hive"

"This Is How We Do It" - Montell Jordan, Wino

"Emergency" - Sofi Tukker, Novak, YAX.X

"Freak Out" - Nightlapse, Bambie

Episode 6, "Saints"

"Munich" - Editors

"Love Comes Close" - Cold Cave

"Overture" - Andrew Lloyd Webber, Phantom Of The Opera Original London Cast

Episode 7, "No Compass"

"S P A C E" - Amber Mark

"The Music Of The Night" - Andrew Lloyd Webber, Phantom Of The Opera Original London Cast

"Firestarter" - The Prodigy

Episode 8, "Flight of the Bumblebee"

"Fade Into You" - Mazzy Star

Episode 9, " Doomcoming"

"The World I Know" - Collective Soul

"Gepetto" - Belly

"Kiss From A Rose" - Seal

Episode 10, "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi"

"Rump Shaker" -Wreckx-N-Effect

"The Haunted" - Dot Allison

"Ladykillers" - Lush

"Come Out And Play" - The Offspring

"All That She Wants" - Ace of Base

"I Touch Myself" - Divinyls

"Only Time" - Enya

"Kiss from a Rose" - Seal

"Vienna" - Ultravox