Outer Banks, Netflix’s globe-trotting teen treasure-hunt drama, closed out its run with a fifth and final season, released all at once on August 20, 2026. Picking up after JJ Maybank’s (Rudy Pankow) death at the hands of his father Chandler Groff (J. Anthony Crane), the ten-episode finale sends the Pogues — John B (Chase Stokes), Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Kiara (Madison Bailey), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), and Cleo (Carlacia Grant) — on one last hunt for the Blue Crown, with an uneasy alliance from Rafe (Drew Starkey) along the way. Created by Josh Pate, Jonas Pate, and Shannon Burke, the season was filmed across Charleston, Dubrovnik, and other international locations.
From here, this article is entirely about the music: the composer behind the show’s score, and the (extensive) list of licensed songs confirmed across the final season.
Outer Banks Season 5 Soundtrack Details
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Series | Outer Banks (Season 5, final season) |
| Creators | Josh Pate, Jonas Pate, Shannon Burke |
| Studio | Rock Fish / Red Canoe Productions |
| Platform | Netflix |
| Premiere Date | August 20, 2026 (all 10 episodes) |
| Composer | Fil Eisler |
| Confirmed Licensed Songs | 90+ across 10 episodes (see below) |
| Official Season Album | Yes — Outer Banks: Season 5 (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series), Netflix Music, released August 20, 2026 (Fil Eisler score, 17 tracks, ~54 min) |
Outer Banks Season 5 Soundtrack Overview
Outer Banks has always been a needle-drop-driven show first and a scored show second, and Season 5 continues that formula at scale: reporting on the season’s music cites a combined cue list running to roughly 97 songs across the ten episodes, spanning surf rock, reggae, blues, psych, and electronic music — reflecting the season’s globe-spanning locations, from Croatia and Morocco to New Orleans and back home to the Outer Banks.
Update (September 2026): An official Season 5 score album has since been released. Outer Banks: Season 5 (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series) arrived digitally via Netflix Music on August 20, 2026 — the same day the season premiered — and collects 17 instrumental cues by composer Fil Eisler, running roughly 54 minutes. Unlike Season 3’s 2023 retail release via Mercury/Republic, which mixed a handful of score cues with licensed songs, this Season 5 album is a score-only release; the confirmed licensed needle drops below are not part of it and remain separately available through each artist’s own catalog. Netflix’s Tudum also published a 25-track vinyl compilation spanning Seasons 1 through 4 timed to the finale, but that legacy retrospective release is separate from, and does not include, the new Season 5 score album.
- The World Is Not Fair — 1:41
- The Boy on the Beach — 4:25
- Take Off — 3:38
- Plenty of Money — 3:44
- On Dry Land — 4:05
- Arise — 5:29
- Unarmed Man — 4:13
- To the Marina — 4:04
- Face Off — 2:21
- Jj Are You out There — 1:59
- To the Depths — 3:56
- The Plan — 2:41
- Do You Really Believe It — 1:57
- A Dangerous Trade — 1:55
- Groff’s Theme — 2:02
- Taking on Water — 3:05
- Savior Angel — 3:08
Tracklist and durations per FMDB’s official release listing; total album runtime is 54:23.
Who Composed the Outer Banks Score?
The instrumental score for Outer Banks was composed by Fil Eisler, who scored all five seasons of the series from 2020 through its 2026 finale.
Eisler is a film and television composer whose credits span major studio projects and prestige TV. He is known for scoring Fox’s Empire, Lifetime’s Peabody-winning UnREAL, Bravo’s Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce, and Showtime’s Emmy-winning Shameless, and served as composer and conductor on ABC’s Revenge. His film work includes Netflix’s To the Bone and The Titan, Warner Bros.’ CHIPS, Sony’s Proud Mary, Fast Charlie, and MGM/New Line’s How to Be Single.
He was also composer and music director on the Peabody Award-winning documentary Newtown, for which he assembled a lineup of more than a dozen Hollywood composers to each contribute a piece of music. Eisler was selected for the Sundance Film Composer’s Lab in 2008.
Because Outer Banks leans so heavily on licensed music for its needle drops, Eisler’s underscore has never been released as a standalone soundtrack album, and no official cue sheet has been published — so a track-by-track “score highlights” breakdown isn’t possible the way it would be for a fully-scored series. His music largely functions as connective tissue between the show’s songs, handling tension and action beats while the licensed tracks carry the emotional and needle-drop moments.
Outer Banks Season 5 Confirmed Licensed Songs (Episode by Episode)
This list is compiled from Netflix’s own episode data, NME’s reporting, Tunefind’s episode-level scene confirmations, and a widely cited Deadline cue count. Given the volume of music in this show, some episodes list every reported song; scene context is included wherever a source confirmed it.
Episode 1, “The Crossing”
- New Candys – “Half-Heart” (leads the episode)
- Mercan Dede – “Napas”
- Lado – “Kolo Poskocica – Lindo”
- Daliborovo Granje – “Mehana”
- Daliborovo Granje – “Hainin”
- Branko Galoic – “Zvijezda vodilja (Guiding Star)”
- Dunja Knebl & Kololira – “Za krlakom cimer”
- Warbaby – “The Ratchet Cowboys of Bareback Ridge”
- Oscar Martos – “La Esperanza”
Episode 2, “The Crown”
- Bonobo feat. Jacob Lusk – “Dark Will Fall” (reported as the episode’s sole licensed cue)
- Source conflict: Tunefind separately lists Soleil‘s “Rubbish” (while John B and Sarah are at the beach) and Billie Eilish‘s “WILDFLOWER” (while Pope and Cleo walk the pier) as appearing in “Episode 2.” This is disclosed as a discrepancy rather than resolved, since the two sources don’t agree on this episode’s song count.
Episode 3, “The Square Grouper” (the season’s deepest cue count, ~25 songs)
- The Brian Jonestown Massacre – “It’s About Being Free Really” and “Melody’s Actual Echo Chamber”
- Ghostwoman – “Do You”
- Gringo Star – “I Will Not Follow”
- Arcy Drive – “Louie”
- Jr. Thomas & The Volcanos – “Love Remedy”
- Freddie McGregor – “Bobby Bobylon”
- Steel Pulse – “Worth His Weight In Gold”
- Jackie Opel & Doreen Schaffer – “Welcome You Back Home”
- Aaron Frazer – “If I Got It (Your Love Brought It)”
- Miss Red – “Slay”
- Mazzy Star – “Blue Light”
- Speedy West – “Rippling Waters”
- Jane Street – “Where Are You”
- La Lom – “Ooo Baby Baby”
- WITCH – “Lazy Bones”
- The Rugged Nuggets – “Rugged Walk”
- Dizzy Gillespie – “N’Bani”
- Marshbanks – “Mr. Sun”
- Benny Trokan – “Get It In The End”
- Antelope – “Game Over”
- Dan Ubick – “Antenna Up”
- Jeremie Albino – “Our Time In The Sun”
- The Thing – “Dixie Queen”
- Brent Cobb – “Black Creek”
Episode 4, “Inside Job”
- JD McPherson – “Bloodhound Rock”
- Johnny Guitar Watson – “A Real Mother For Ya”
- tøm hughes – “gold to me.”
- Favourite People – “Wading Out”
- Gitkin – “El Millonario”
- Jr. Thomas & The Volcanos – “Burning Fire”
- Dwayne Ellis – “Running In and Out”
- Glyders – “Geneva Strangemod”
- Fat Freddy’s Drop – “Ernie”
- Rattlesnake Milk – “On The Road”
- The Lijadu Sisters – “Not Any Longer”
- Howie B. – “Who’s Got The Bacon”
- Note: NME separately reports Ray Lemelin‘s “Ain’t No Use In Worryin'” for this episode; this title does not appear in the more detailed cue list above, so it’s flagged as an unresolved discrepancy between sources rather than silently added or dropped.
Episode 5, “The Scytale”
- The Stooges – “Down On The Street”
- Sister Nancy – “Bam Bam”
- R.L. Burnside feat. Lyrics Born – “Someday Baby”
- Jr. Thomas & The Volcanos – “More Than Memories”
- The Nude Party – “Records”
- The Stews – “Make It Out”
- Mapache – “Hey”
Episode 6, “The Big Easy”
- The Meters – “Sing a Simple Song” (a cover of Sly & The Family Stone)
- Sandra-Mae Lux – “Love Me Tonight (No Sax Solo)”
- Ray Charles – “Drown In My Own Tears”
- Hanni El Khatib – “Sinking In The Sand”
- Allah-Las – “Terra Ignota”
- Greg Humphreys – “Salem Town”
- Workhorse – “Dreamhorse”
- Jake La Botz – “Shaken and Taken”
Episode 7, “Bal des Sauvages”
- Tame Impala – “Borderline” and “End Of Summer”
- Glass Beams – “Kong”
- Edwyn Collins – “A Girl Like You”
- Charlotte Gainsbourg (Soulwax remix) – “Deadly Valentine”
- Sugar Pie DeSanto – “Going Back To Where I Belong”
- Empress – “Dyin’ To Be Dancin'”
- The Brian Jonestown Massacre – “Fact 67”
- Chicha Libre – “Tres Pasajeros”
- Cat’s Eyes feat. Xue Sujuan – “Flashback”
- JJUUJJUU – “WILLING”
- Anthony Lazaro – “Moody Wind”
- Cottonwood Firing Squad – “hospital beach”
- Hollow Ship – “Magic Mountain”
- The Ironsides – “The Web”
- Beautiful Chorus – “Faith’s Hymn”
- The Runarounds – “Downtown”
Episode 8, “The Runway Part 2”
- Lilah Pate – “Shoebox”
- SYML – “Symmetry”
- Fcukers – “Umpa”
- Party of the Sun – “Song For You” (confirmed scene: Rafe tells Sofia he’s signing the real estate contract and asks her to keep her engagement ring)
- The Nude Party – “Walk That Walk”
- The Gnars – “Speak My Mind”
Episode 9, “Arise, Arise” (the season’s sparsest episode, reportedly just 2 licensed cues)
- Night Beats – “Hot Ghee”
- Dude Standphill – “Left Alone Blues”
Episode 10, “The Storm and What Came After” (series finale)
- Dr. Dog – “We All Belong”
- Sturgill Simpson – “Remember to Breathe” (confirmed scene: the Pogues head to the dock)
- The Cars – “Good Times Roll”
- Stevie Wonder – “For Once in My Life”
- King Tuff – “Invisible Ink”
- Hey, Nothing – “Death Song”
- The Lijadu Sisters – “Come On Home”
- The Tonettes – “I’ll Give It To You”
- Fruit Bats – “A Lingering Love”
- The Tennors – “Weather Report” (a reggae adaptation of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Only Living Boy in New York”)
Frequently Recurring Artists This Season
Jr. Thomas & The Volcanos appear in three consecutive episodes (3, 4, and 5), the season’s most-featured act. The Brian Jonestown Massacre land three total placements, two of them in Episode 3 alone. Tame Impala and The Lijadu Sisters each appear twice.
Where to Listen to the Outer Banks Season 5 Soundtrack?
Since no dedicated Season 5 soundtrack album exists, the confirmed songs above can be streamed individually through each artist’s own Spotify, Apple Music, or Amazon Music catalog. Several fan-curated playlists collecting the season’s music are also available on Spotify, though these are community-assembled rather than officially published by Netflix. The 25-track vinyl collection spanning Seasons 1–4 is available for pre-order via Netflix’s official channels for anyone chasing physical copies of the earlier soundtracks.
FAQs
Who composed the Outer Banks score?
Fil Eisler composed the underscore for all five seasons of the series, including the Season 5 finale.
Is there an official Outer Banks Season 5 soundtrack album?
Yes. Outer Banks: Season 5 (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series), a 17-track score-only album by composer Fil Eisler, was released via Netflix Music on August 20, 2026, the same day the season premiered.
How many songs are in Outer Banks Season 5?
Reporting places the confirmed licensed-song cue count at roughly 97 songs across the ten episodes, in addition to the separate 17-track official score album.
What song plays in the Outer Banks series finale?
The finale, “The Storm and What Came After,” features Dr. Dog‘s “We All Belong,” Sturgill Simpson‘s “Remember to Breathe,” The Cars‘ “Good Times Roll,” Stevie Wonder‘s “For Once in My Life,” and King Tuff‘s “Invisible Ink,” among others.
Which episode has the most music in Season 5?
Episode 3, “The Square Grouper,” reportedly carries around 25 licensed cues — more than a quarter of the entire season’s music.
Where can I stream the songs from Outer Banks Season 5?
Individual licensed songs are available on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music through each artist’s own catalog, and the official Fil Eisler score album is available on the same platforms.
Did any Outer Banks cast members contribute music to the show?
Yes — Episode 8 features “Shoebox” by Lilah Pate, the daughter of series co-creator Jonas Pate and a member of the band featured in the Pate-created series The Runarounds.
Related Reading
For more Netflix needle-drop-driven soundtracks and other series wrap-ups, visit the TV soundtrack hub and the Netflix soundtrack hub for more composer profiles and episode-by-episode song guides.