The Alien franchise has a rich musical legacy, with acclaimed composers including Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner working on the earlier films, but the franchise has never been known for its needle drops. There’s a good reason for that, as the movies are set in a far-flung future in the depths of space: Not only can no one hear you scream, but no one can hear the latest chart-topping hits. The new FX series Alien: Earth, though, takes a different approach.
Created by Noah Hawley, Alien: Earth stars a large ensemble cast coping with the unexpected fallout of a spaceship crash on the titular planet — a crash that brings the horrors of this universe a lot closer to home. And while the show takes place in the year 2120, its terrestrial setting means that there’s a lot more room for a wide range of actual songs on the soundtrack.
Unlike, say, the famously score-free The Bear, Alien: Earth does have Jeff Russo on board as composer, who in addition to collaborating with Hawley on Fargo and Legion also provided the music for series including Ripley, Star Trek: Discovery, and For All Mankind. His excellent score, available now, is packed with powerful themes. Yet in addition, the songs shepherded to the screen by music supervisor Maggie Phillips represent some fascinating choices. Thus, Consequence will update this post each week, as we get drawn deeper into the show’s existential (and not-so-existential) terrors.
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[Editor’s note: The following contains mild spoilers through Alien: Earth, Season 1 Episode 2, “Mr. October.”]
Episode 1: “Neverland”
Alien: Earth (FX)
- Nina Simone — “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”
- TV on the Radio — “Killer Crane”
- Lord Afrixana – “No Dey Tire”
- Black Sabbath — “The Mob Rules” (end credits)
Our introduction to the year 2120 features both diegetic and non-diegetic music — diegetic music being songs that characters are listening to on screen, like that classic Nina Simone track which plays as Karen Aldridge’s scientist character works in the lab on board the doomed USCSS Maginot. Non-diegetic music, meanwhile, is music that just plays as part of the soundtrack, such as the TV on the Radio tune heard as newly-transformed Marcy/Wendy (Sydney Chandler) gazes out at her island home.
The choice of TV on the Radio’s “Killer Crane” actually packs a deeper meaning in these circumstances — the song is about the band coming to terms with bassist Gerard Smith’s terminal lung cancer (he died nine days after the release of their 2011 album, Nine Types of Light). It’s a light, life-affirming track about mortality, which ends up serving as a haunting introduction to this new hybrid “forever girl.”
In addition, Lord Afrixana provides the song heard as we watch Hermit (Alex Lawther) make his way home after a long day. And over the episode’s closing credits, we have Black Sabbath’s title track from their 1981 album — The Mob Rules was the Dio era, not the Ozzy era, in case you were wondering.
Outside of the world of music (though still very important to the show) is a movie that the show chooses to feature prominently even though it’s over a century old for these characters: The animated flick that Hermit remembers watching with his kid sister isn’t any Ice Age movie — it’s specifically 2012’s Ice Age 4: Continental Drift. Perhaps not a movie that’s been heralded as a modern classic in this century, but the “Face my fury” bit is pretty cute.
As of writing, the one big question that still needs to be answered is who was responsible for the ethereal/horrifying cover of Cream’s “Strange Brew” that serves as a musical stinger at the beginning of the episode. Consequence has requested more information from FX and will update this post as soon as it’s available.
Episode 2: “Mr. October”
Alien: Earth (FX)
- Uncredited — “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive”
- Tool — “Stinkfest” (end credits)
In comparison to the first episode, there are fewer needle drops to focus on here, with Russo’s score doing the heavy lifting. There’s some faint music heard in the background when Hermit and a Prodigy soldier try to evacuate a fancy dress party, but it’s not playing loudly enough to be identified (especially after the Xenomorph crashes the festivities). Additionally, we can’t forget the sweet sound of Reggie Jackson’s Game 6 homer in the 1977 World Series, but that was hardly a chart-topper musically.
So the biggest moments to focus on here are Hermit’s fuzzy childhood memories of his family singing the song “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” which dates back to 1944 and has been recorded by countless artists since. (We could perhaps credit this rendition in part to creator Noah Hawley, who cameos as Hermit and Wendy’s now-deceased father.)
Additionally, there’s Tool’s “Stinkfest” as the closing credits track — a song with a notorious music video and a complicated history with MTV, as VJs weren’t allowed to say the title on air. The song’s subject matter isn’t exactly subtle (“Finger deep within the borderline” being a sample lyric) but the message gets across.
Alien: Earth premieres Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on Hulu and at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on FX. This guide will be updated each week, after the episode airs on FX.