Netflix has finally, finally, finally started streaming stranger things Season 4 Volume 1, and the best news is easily the soundtrack. Like previous seasons of stranger things, old-fashioned needle drops are the name of the game here. We’ll go out on a limb here and declare that the soundtrack for season 4 is related with the Season 3 soundtrack as the series’ best. That’s a powerful statement since the season 3 soundtrack included “Neutron Dance”, “Lovergirl”, “Things Can Only Get Better”, “My Bologna”, “Never Surrender”, “Material Girl”, and “Never Ending”. Story”. with the latter performed – brilliantly and hysterically – by Dusty-Bun/Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Suzie-poo/Suzie (Gabriella Pizzolo).

But there are a lot of good bits in stranger things Season 4 Volume 1 and some of the albums these songs are from are even better. So get out the record player (or Spotify playlist) and let’s take a look at the best needle drops from stranger things 4. no middle finger foreign thing spoilers ahead.

12. Louis Armstrong “Dream a Little Dream of Me”

Written in 1931, “Dream a Little Dream” has been covered dozens of times by everyone from The Mamas and the Papas, Nat King Cole and Michael Buble to Eddie Vedder, Doris Day and Dean Martin. The original version was recorded by Ozzie Nelson and his orchestra (with vocals by Nelson). The stranger things 4 the soundtrack presents the sublime version of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, who blend their respective talents in a harmonious way. It should be mentioned that the soundtrack also includes the song “Traveling Man” by Ricky Nelson, who was the son of Ozzie Nelson.

11. Extreme “play with me”

If you like glam metal/hard rock, this one’s for you. Extreme released the song on their 1989 album, “Extreme”. It’s a usable headbanger. If you think you’ve heard it in a movie before, you’re right. It was also on the Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventurethe soundtrack.

10. Journey “Separate Ways” (2022 Remix)

Take one of Journey’s most explosive songs and make it explosive. This seems to be the mission undertaken by Bryce Miller / Alloy Track, and call it mission accomplished. If your ears sense that the score of Stranger Things has been incorporated into the mix for the melody’s 2 minutes and 46 seconds, apparently it is.

9. Musical Youth “Pass the Dutchie”

So, it’s a reggae song about passing around a joint, sung by a group of British-Jamaican teenagers, and it was a worldwide hit. Well, strange things happened. All drug references from the song that inspired it, “Pass the Kouchie”, were cut. Dutchie is a Dutch oven! But that didn’t fool anyone.

8. Starpoint “Object of My Desire”

A straightforward dance-pop-funk number by the band Starpoint, “Object of My Desire” is one song without shame. It’s loud, infectious, and best of all, it’s not so overplayed on 80s stations that you immediately skip to the next track 10 seconds into play. A sweet rediscovery.

7. “I Was A Teenage Werewolf” Cramps

Speaking of giving off Stranger Things vibes, this punk/psychobilly rocker from The Cramps sounds like he has a crystal ball and can see into the future from 1980, when the song was released, to now, when it’s released. Fits the soundtrack like a glove. “Werewolf” is made up of smashing drums and deafening guitars that last a propulsive three minutes, compared to the round-trip two minutes of most punk songs of its era. I have to be honest and say I’ve never heard it before, and it’s on my playlist now.

6. “Psycho Killer” Talking Heads

This classic was first released in 1977, on the band’s debut album. It’s a scary number with an unforgettable bassline and French lyrics, and it definitely gives off the right stranger things vibes. What people tend to forget is that the rest of the very first Talking Heads album is great too!

5. Baltimore’s “Tarzan Boy”

It sounds like the perfect American song but the perfect American band from Baltimore, but… Baltimora – note the “a” – hails from Italy and Ireland. Part new wave part part disco song, “Tarzan Boy” is a one-shot forgotten wonder, though no longer forgotten thanks to Strange things.

4. Dead or alive “You make me spin”

Most singers from foreign countries don’t sound particularly foreign when they perform, but Dead or Alive lead singer Pete Burns (who died in 2016) always sounded very British. This song is on par with “Rock Me Amadeus” when it comes to sheer hook, but it’s a little less kitsch than Falco’s song, which makes it a little less fun.

3. “California Dreamin'” from Moms and Dads

So it’s interesting. Great song. Absolutely immortal. The Stranger Things playlist features the Beach Boys 1986 interpretation of it, while the first episode of the first half of the show’s fourth season actually gives us the Mamas and Papas’ version. Both are great, but the Mamas and Papas give it more of a haunting edge that works great for a montage sequence at the start of the first episode of Season 4.

2. Falco “Rock Me, Amadeus”

It’s up there with the catchiest and most absurd songs ever released. No one, especially in the United States, figured out what it was, why it was mixing German and English lyrics, or who Falco was, but it hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1986. We dare you to not singing every time Falco – who sadly died in a car accident in 1998 at the age of 40 – arrives at the chorus.

1. Kate Bush “Running up that hill

Yes, this song is the best. No one has a voice quite like Kate Bush, and if the current new surge in sales and publicity inspires her to record or tour again, then thank you, Duffer Brothers. “Running Up That Hill” is classic Bush, meaning it’s ethereal power pop with a literary flair and long duration (“Running” is over five minutes long). Fun fact, Big Boi – one half of Outkast – has repeatedly suggested that a collaboration with Kate Bush is in the works. His Kate Bush fandom is well known, and he even mentioned it to Paternal back in 2019. The point? If the younger crowd slept on Kate Bush, that’s okay. We now welcome them into a larger world.

Also, just after strange things, 4 hit Netflix, this song skyrocketed on music streamers like Spotify. So yes, we are back in the Kate Bush revival.

Here is the complete stranger things Spotify playlist