The Jeremy Renner-starring Mayor of Kingstown — from Yellowstone and Hell or High Water creator Taylor Sheridan and Headstones frontman and Yellowstone actor Hugh Dillon — has been making waves in its first season and no doubt one attractive element of the Paramount+ show is Andrew Lockington’s inventive score. Today, as the show nears its season finale, and as Lakeshore Records prepares to release the soundtrack on Friday, Vehlinggo has an exclusive premiere of the entrancing cue “Orion.”
Mayor of Kingstown, which also stars Dianne Wiest and Kyle Chandler, follows powerbrokers the McLusky family in Kingstown, Michigan, where the prison business is the primary local industry. The series tackles systemic racism, corruption, and inequality to provide a stark look at the family’s attempt to bring order and justice to the ailing town. Lockington, known for his scores for films Rampage, San Andreas, and Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008), among other things, uses the prison set as an instrument as much as he does any other more customary fare. Additionally, the humming theme of “Orion” reflects a deep-rooted practice in the history of the prison system.
The pensive “Orion,” with its intricately woven instrumentation that ebbs and flows on wave of reflection, is a great example of the depth and breadth of Lockington’s creative approach toward the show’s music.
“Taylor Sheridan challenged me to aurally paint the walls and the bars we can’t see, and hint at the hopes and dreams the characters are trying not to see,” Lockington said in a statement. “Our early experimentation recording medieval instruments and drums inside a decommissioned, maximum-security prison evolved into using mallets and cello bows on the prison walls themselves, essentially coaxing the music out of the structure. At one point, we had the entire five-story atrium cage vibrating and resonating like the world’s largest suspended cymbal. The Mayor of Kingstown score uses humming, orchestra, drums, analog synths, piano and prison textures to tell the other side of the story. Writing this music, I began to question which was more tragic — capturing the oppressive echo of this world, or musically revealing the utopian future the characters dream of, but will never have.”
Mayor of Kingstown—Original Series Soundtrack Season 1 releases Friday, Jan. 7, digitally via Lakeshore Records, but you can pre-save it today. The season finale of Mayor of Kingstown will be available to stream on Sunday, Jan. 9, exclusively on Paramount+.
Score Info: Tracklist for Mayor of Kingstown—Original Series Soundtrack Season 1
01. Mayor Of Kingstown Main Titles
02. Tennis Ball
03. History
04. Bunny Standoff
05. Bear
06. No Friend At All
07. Orion
08. Iris
09. Leave Someday
10. Man Down
11. Nothing To Lose
12. Suspicion
13. Prophecy Theme
14. Having A Baby
15. Walking The Yard
16. Stabbing
17. Broken
18. Buried
19. Ulysses
