Stevie Nicks, The Cure and Jennifer Lawrence Join 29-Track Hunger Games Soundtrack

The full soundtrack for 'The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping' runs 29 tracks and gathers Stevie Nicks, The Cure, Noah Kahan, Kacey Musgraves, Depeche Mode, The Smashing Pumpkins and Jennifer Lawrence on one album. MCA Records will release it on November 13, a week before the film reaches theatres on November 20.

Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb directed the project. Cobb's credits include Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson, which makes him a natural fit for a record where country storytellers share space with alternative rock legends and indie favourites.

The lineup reads less like a soundtrack and more like several festival bills compressed into one album. Here's who made the cut:

• Noah Kahan — "Draw You Out"
• The Smashing Pumpkins — "Black Stars"
• Stevie Nicks — "Doing the Best That I Can (Arena Mix)"
• The Cure — "Alone (Live in Berlin 2022)"
• Depeche Mode & KÁRYYN — "Survive (Arena Mix | KÁRYYN Rework)"
• Kacey Musgraves — "Ruthless (Arena Mix)"
• Tyler Childers — "Old Money"
• Lizzy McAlpine — "The Wheel"
• Gigi Perez — "Favor"

What's an Arena Mix?

The tracklist uses the term "Arena Mix" on three songs — Nicks's, Musgraves's and Depeche Mode's. The label signals reworkings built for the franchise's world of televised spectacle, where the arena is the stage and the stakes are life and death. KÁRYYN handled the Depeche Mode reworking herself.

The Cure close the album with a live Berlin recording of "Alone." Taken together, the veteran acts share a musical throughline: their catalogues have long explored longing, mortality, resilience and survival — themes that map neatly onto Panem's dystopia.

Who else appears?

Country music gets one of the strongest showings. Beyond Musgraves and Childers, the album features Ella Langley ("Here Then We're Gone"), Stephen Wilson Jr. ("First in Line"), Carter Faith ("Can't Let You Go") and Kashus Culpepper ("May Brings Flowers").

The roster also includes Noah Cyrus ("Ash and Snow"), Sydney Rose ("Dove Song"), Madeline Edwards ("Wrestle with God"), Madison Cunningham ("Show Me Where the Ending Starts"), Violet Grohl ("Metal Birds"), Bella Kay ("See It Coming"), Billy Vincent ("No Destination"), Hudson Freeman ("But You Wanted More"), Emelie Trahan ("Same Blood") and Scot Greenan ("The Old Therebefore").

The actors sing too

Cast members take real space on the record. Whitney Peak appears on four tracks — "The Raven I," "The Raven II," "The Raven III" and "The Goose and the Common." Mckenna Grace performs "Half Alive."

The most resonant name for longtime fans is Jennifer Lawrence, who returns to the franchise's musical world with "Deep in the Meadow" (track 26). The song carries deep emotional history in the series, and Lawrence's portrayal of Katniss Everdeen made her the face of the original films. Her recording is the album's clearest bridge between the old and new eras.

What does this change for the franchise?

The bar is high. Earlier 'Hunger Games' soundtracks turned Taylor Swift's "Safe & Sound" and Lorde's "Yellow Flicker Beat" into essential pieces of the franchise's identity. This album's producers answered with a roster that spans multiple generations and could, as the announcement puts it, "practically headline several different music festivals."

The film itself is a prequel. It takes place 24 years before the original story and follows 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy during the 50th Hunger Games, known as the Second Quarter Quell. Joseph Zada plays the young Haymitch. Mckenna Grace, Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Elle Fanning and Kieran Culkin round out the cast.

Director Francis Lawrence returns to the franchise, adapting Suzanne Collins's bestselling novel about the Games that shaped one of Panem's most complicated survivors.

Full track listing

1. The Raven I — Whitney Peak
2. Ash and Snow — Noah Cyrus
3. First in Line — Stephen Wilson Jr.
4. See It Coming — Bella Kay
5. The Wheel — Lizzy McAlpine
6. The Raven II — Whitney Peak
7. Dove Song — Sydney Rose
8. Here Then We're Gone — Ella Langley
9. Wrestle with God — Madeline Edwards
10. Ruthless (Arena Mix) — Kacey Musgraves
11. No Destination — Billy Vincent
12. The Raven III — Whitney Peak
13. Favor — Gigi Perez
14. But You Wanted More — Hudson Freeman
15. Black Stars — The Smashing Pumpkins
16. Half Alive — Mckenna Grace
17. Doing the Best That I Can (Arena Mix) — Stevie Nicks
18. The Goose and the Common — Whitney Peak
19. Survive (Arena Mix | KÁRYYN Rework) — Depeche Mode & KÁRYYN
20. Same Blood — Emelie Trahan
21. May Brings Flowers — Kashus Culpepper
22. The Old Therebefore — Scot Greenan
23. Can't Let You Go — Carter Faith
24. Old Money — Tyler Childers
25. Show Me Where the Ending Starts — Madison Cunningham
26. Deep in the Meadow — Jennifer Lawrence
27. Draw You Out — Noah Kahan
28. Metal Birds — Violet Grohl
29. Alone (Live in Berlin 2022) — The Cure

Whether this lineup produces a franchise-defining single on the level of "Safe & Sound" will only become clear after November 13 — but with Nicks, The Cure and Lawrence all on one record, the odds are, as ever, in its favour.