‘Rise’ Soundtrack: Here’s How To Hear The New Music Ahead Of Each Episode

Rise fans can sing along to the music. NBC has announced there will be a weekly release of original cast recordings from the stars of the new series. According to Playbill, the Friday preceding each episode, Atlantic Records will release the tracks featured on the upcoming Tuesday episode. For example, the March 16 release includes music from the March 20 episode of Rise.

Each Friday, music from the forthcoming Rise episode will be released to all digital service providers and streaming services. The songs will also be featured on Atlantic Records’ YouTube page, which has a playlist dedicated to Rise tracks, including those all-important lyric videos.

In addition, on May 11, Atlantic will release Rise Season 1: The Album, which will also contain additional unreleased tracks. The Rise musical releases are produced by Atlantic Records’ Grammy-nominated West Coast president, Kevin Weaver.

The weekly releases will feature a mix of songs performed in each episode by the Rise cast as well as their cover remixes of other tracks that play in the episode. Last week, the recording released ahead of the Rise premiere featured a cover of Mackelmore’s “Glorious” as well as “I Believe” from Stephen Sater’s Tony Award-winning musical Spring Awakening. A medley from the musical, a rendition of Pearl Jam’s “Just Breathe” was also included, as well as “Football Freestyle,” a song written specifically for the NBC series by Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Rise is producer Jason Katims’ adaption of the book Drama High. The new drama follows the students of fictional Pennsylvania high school, Stanton High, as they rehearse for their production of the controversial musical Spring Awakening. In an interview with Billboard, Katims explained how the Macklemore song made it onto the Rise soundtrack, despite the fact that it’s not featured in Spring Awakening.

“It wasn’t something that was in the show,” the Rise showrunner said. “NBC started this promotion in order to launch the show and they came to us to do the song with the cast for the promos. It came out so well, we wanted to include it on the soundtrack, even though it’s not in the show.”

Katims also revealed why NBC decided to advance each episode with the Friday music preview.

“We’re so proud of this music, we’re so proud of the work this young cast is doing. We don’t feel it will take away from the episode, rather, we think it will build to the excitement leading to the air date.”

Each Friday, the number of songs dropped will vary depending on the amount of music in the upcoming episode. Weaver told Billboard Atlantic will release “the most important featured songs” from the next episode.

The Rise cast includes Josh Radnor, Rosie Perez, Auli’i Cravalho, Damon J. Gillespie, Marley Shelton, Rarmian Newton, Ted Sutherland, Amy Forsyth, Casey W. Johnson, Taylor Richardson, Joe Tippett, and Shirley Rumierk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KcG68wVc08

Rise airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.