Asteroid City (soundtrack)

Asteroid City (Original Soundtrack) is the compilation soundtrack album for the 2023 film Asteroid City, by Wes Anderson. It was digitally published by ABKCO Records on June 23, 2023, the same day as the film's theatrical release in the United States.

Composition

Asteroid City takes place in an Arizona desert town in 1955, and its soundtrack contains 17 country and western songs that were originally recorded and released during that time period. Music supervisor Randall Poster stated that "Wes [Anderson] and I had so much fun putting the film's music together... For Asteroid City, we had been 'hunting and gathering' for a year before shooting began."

The soundtrack also includes six original songs by Alexandre Desplat and two original songs by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker—both of whom had previously been featured on the soundtrack of Anderson's The French Dispatch—and Richard Hawley.

Release

On June 20, 2023, three days before the soundtrack's release, Cocker released his original song for the film, "Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven)", which was co-written with Hawley and Anderson. On June 22, Cocker and Hawley performed at an Asteroid City immersive exhibition in London, playing "Dear Alien" and a second song they wrote for the film, "You Can't Wake Up If You Don't Fall Asleep". A special vinyl edition of the soundtrack was made available exclusively at the exhibition, limited to 1,000 copies.

A two-disc vinyl edition of the soundtrack was released on November 24, 2023.

Accolades

In December 2023, the song "Dear Alien (Who Art in Heaven)" was shortlisted for Best Original Song at the 96th Academy Awards.

Track listing

Notes

Initially, both Apple Music and Spotify mistakenly named track 3 as "Indian Love Call". The song that actually plays is "Island of Dreams", as listed in the Focus Features press release.