Severance season 1 soundtrack: A definitive guide to all the songs in the series

The psychological thriller series Severance season 1 was released on Apple TV+ between February 18, 2022, and April 8, 2022. It is created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller, among others. Moreover, Aoife McArdle, Amanda Overton, and Gerry Robert Byrne serve as the show's producers.

Severance season 1 focuses on the Lumon employees - Mark S., Dylan G., Helly R., and Irving B. who underwent the company's severance program to split their memories into innies (work self) and outies (non-work self). The first season deals with the innies trying to understand the deeper mysteries lurking behind the company and its founder, Kier Eagan.

The official synopsis of Severance season 1, as per Apple TV, reads:

"Mark leads a team of office workers whose memories have been surgically divided between their work and personal lives; when a mysterious colleague appears outside of work, it begins a journey to discover the truth about their jobs."

What songs are featured in Severance season 1?

The music for the highly-acclaimed Apple TV+ series is created by the award-winning composer Theodore Shapiro. Its official album, titled Severance: Season 1 Apple TV+ Original Series Soundtrack, was released on February 18, 2022 by Endeavor Content.

The album contains 20 instrumental pieces created by Shapiro and has a runtime of 54 minutes and 33 seconds.

Furthermore, Shapiro won the award for 'Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score)' at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in 2022.

Below is an episode-wise breakdown of all the songs featured in Severance season 1.

Episode 1

Main Titles by Theodore Shapiro
Labor Of Love by Theodore Shapiro
Pyramid Song by Radiohead

Episode 2

Joshua Fit De Battle Ob Jericho by Grant Green
The Cat by Jimmy Smith
I'll Be Seeing You by Billie Holiday
Music Of Wellness by Theodore Shapiro
Daydream In Blue by I Monster

Episode 3

Note To Self by Theodore Shapiro
Hall Of Eagans by Theodore Shapiro

Episode 4

Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me by Mac Davis
Enter Sandman by Metallica

Episode 5

Done For The Night by Theodore Shapiro

Episode 6

Interdepartmental by Theodore Shapiro
After Hours by Theodore Shapiro
Old Devil Moon by Chet Baker

Episode 7

Batter Up by Theodore Shapiro
Shakey Jake by Joe McPhee
Times of Your Life by Paul Anka
I'll Be Seeing You by Billie Holiday
Yellow Bird by Arthur Lyman

Episode 8

Ace of Spades by Motorhead
Chinese Surfer by Kava Kon
Taboo Tu by Arthur Lyman
The Four Tempers by Theodore Shapiro
Palace of the Tiger Women by Kava Kon
Music Of Wellness by Theodore Shapiro

Episode 9

The Four Tempers by Theodore Shapiro
Ace of Spades by Motorhead
Tokens by Theodore Shapiro
That Innie by Theodore Shapiro
Interdepartmental by Theodore Shapiro
Cobel At Lumon by Theodore Shapiro
Alive by Theodore Shapiro
Your Mind Is On Vacation by Mose Allison

Also read: Severance season 2’s credit sequence: Everything you need to know

What is Severance season 1 about?

Severance season 1 centers on the severed employees - Mark S., Irving B., Dylan G., and its latest member Helly R. - working at Lumon's Macrodata Refinement Division on the severed floor.

Helly joins the MDR team in the season's premiere episode and immediately tries to break free from the confines of the severed floor, even attempting suicide in desperation.

From the innies' perspective, they awaken inside the severed floor and switch back to their outies while leaving the severed floor at the end of the work day. Hence, they are perpetually stuck at work with no way to witness the outside world.

Furthermore, the severed workers are managed by the floor manager Harmony Cobel and her deputy, Seth Milchick. Whenever the workers breach the company rules, the duo sends them to the break room to psychologically torture them into compliance.

Also in Severance season 1, the outie Mark meets his innie's best friend, Petey, and begins suspecting Lumon of engaging in sinister activities. Like Mark, Petey was severed but he reintegrated his memories and died soon after from reintegration sickness.

After Dylan accidentally learns about the overtime contingency, a protocol that allows the innies to awaken in the outside world, the MDR team decides to use the protocol. Dylan stays back at Lumon to activate the multi-step process, giving Mark, Helly, and Irving the chance to learn about their respective outies.

However, their escapade does not go as planned as Milchick puts an end to the overtime contingency just as the innies are about to blow the whistle on Lumon's nefarious activities to the general public.

Also read: Was CGI used to achieve Severance’s one-shot scene? Jessica Lee Gagné addresses the technique

All episodes of Severance season 1 are available to stream on Apple TV+.

About the author

Deepti is an entertainment writer at Sportskeeda. She comes with more than 6 years of experience in the creative writing field and has written extensively for the entertainment and travel domains.

She holds a degree in Chemistry, but her true interest always lay in the creative field. A passion for reading from a young age fueled her desire to make a career change later in life and take up writing as her profession.

Apart from reading, her hobbies include watching movies, listening to music, and going to the beach. In her free time, she can be found looking up reviews of new and old films to add to her watchlist. She also enjoys watching foreign language films that help expand her knowledge base regarding different cultures around the world.

Asked to describe herself, she would promptly mention that she is a die-hard Swiftie and enjoys nothing more than listening to Taylor Swift songs on loop while writing.

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Edited by Prem Deshpande