The Songs of Arcane
The Arcane Season 2 soundtrack is stunning
Until just a few months ago I’d never heard of Arcane, the amazing Netflix series inspired by the League of Legends game. I got to it via Linkin Park and the song Heavy is the Crown, which was the theme song for League of Legends Worlds 2024 and got a special remix for season 2 of Arcane, which premiered about the same time that From Zero was released.
A user on r/linkinpark suggested Arcane as something LP folks might like so I decided to quickly check out Season 2 Episode 1 to see and hear how Heavy is the Crown was used.
I had no idea what was going on, but I was absolutely floored by the amazing animation and quality of the show. I immediately went back and started with Season 1, Episode 1 and watched both seasons of the series in just a couple weeks, which is actually pretty quick for me.
As great as everything about the show is, what really grabbed me was the amazing use of music, but especially the many songs. Season 2 really took this up a level with multiple song montages in each episode. These often seemed to serve as a way to more quickly move the plot forward, but the songs got stuck in my head.
And really, the entire soundtrack for Arcane season 2 is just as amazing as the show itself.
Unlike other shows that commission or find songs to use in the show, it seems like the folks making Arcane actually wrote many of the songs and then found artists to sing them. The lyrics for most songs seem to so closely fit the situations more so than I see in music used in other shows.
One of my favorite songs on the soundtrack is Blood Sweat & Tears, which doesn’t actually appear in the show itself, other than a small nod to it in the background of the final episode. I only just realized that they had made an entire music video for it, which does help fill in the backstory for one of the primary characters.
Other highlights for me include I Can’t Hear It Now, Sucker, Hellfire, Fantastic and Wasteland. But really, I love all the songs on the soundtrack. Be sure to check it out!
Here are some videos:
And here are some live versions of the songs that I really enjoyed.