Twisters: The Album

Twisters: The Album is the soundtrack to the 2024 film Twisters directed by Lee Isaac Chung, a standalone sequel to Twister (1996). It was released through Atlantic Records on July 19, 2024, the same day as the North American theatrical release and featured 29 songs from country music artists. The album is produced by Kevin Weaver, Brandon Davis, Ian Chipps and Joseph Khoury.

The album was preceded by numerous singles; the album's lead single "Ain't No Love in Oklahoma" by Luke Combs released on May 16, 2024, which followed with each single being released per weeks leading up the soundtrack's release.

Background
On May 8, 2024, the second trailer for Twisters was released through social media platforms and towards the end of the trailer, the producers announced the soundtrack titled Twisters: The Album similar to the predecessor which also featured an accompanying soundtrack of pop hits featured in the film. On May 16, the complete track list for the soundtrack was revealed which consisted of 29 songs from country music acts, such as Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, Bailey Zimmerman, Megan Moroney, Tucker Wetmore, Tanner Adell, Conner Smith, Leon Bridges and several others. Its release marked the first blockbuster film release to feature a completely original country music soundtrack since the soundtrack to Urban Cowboy in 1980.

Production
Twisters: The Album was compiled by the film's music supervisor Rachel Levy and Mike Knobloch, executive vice president of music for Universal Pictures. Knobloch did not want to recreate the predecessor's soundtrack. Instead, Knobloch treated it as his own project. He worked closely with Chung to conceive a musical soundscape for that film which would be "organic and authentic to where the story takes place, which is in Oklahoma" resulting him to collaborate with country artists and songwriters from that location to write music for the album. Knobloch collaborated with Weaver to distribute the soundtrack through Atlantic Records over multiple labels, following the success of Barbie the Album (2023) as the label had signed multiple country music artists, following the genre boom, adding "We know from past experiences that Kevin and his team, like us, are super-competitive and uncompromising perfectionists [...] They want to take big swings like we do. It just felt like Atlantic as a partner had the right attitude. Everyone on the core team [at Atlantic] has great Nashville relationships." According to Weaver, he wanted the music to become a character of the film, over compiling popular music for the purpose of a soundtrack.

Levy who had been a fan of country music admitted it as exciting to work with, as music supervisors do not have that opportunity to work with country musicians. Weaver, Chung and Knobloch met Levy multiple times with Chung selecting over 20 scenes for which he wanted original songs. The label then solicited artists to write specifically for those sequences based on the visuals and brief about tempo, tone and thematic suggestions. All of the songs were written specifically for the film, except for one song "Boots Don't" which was performed by Shania Twain and Breland. Twain's "No One Needs to Know" (1996) was used in the first film, and Knobloch found it "cool" on her song being used for the sequel as well.

Lainey Wilson was the first artist to be signed who was confirmed within early-January. Despite the busy schedules, several other artists seemed to be interested on working on the album after the team reached to them, resulted in assembling nearly 30 artists. Since the album consisted of several songs, they had to work responsibly in keeping the budget under control.

Release
Twisters: The Album was released day-and-date with the film on July 19, 2024, through Atlantic Records. Besides its release for digital download, the soundtrack was made available through compact discs and multiple variants of vinyl records exclusively on the album's official website. Pre-orders for the soundtrack were made digitally through Apple Music on May 16.

Singles
Starting with May 16, each song from Twisters: The Album were released as singles leading to the album's release, that provided a long musical runway and social media campaigns. Knobloch and Weaver deciphered on the release strategy, which would make as big an impact and create interest and awareness for a long period of time in the run up to the film's release and the songs "have the ability to have their own moment, [so that] they perform better typically".

The song "Ain't No Love in Oklahoma" was the first to be released as a single from the album; it was performed by American country music singer Luke Combs who co-wrote it with Jessi Alexander and Jonathan Singleton. It soundtracked the film's second trailer released on May 8, 2024 and was written specifically for the film. On May 16, 2024, the full song in its entirety was released to digital platforms with an accompanying music video directed by Alex Bittan and featuring NASCAR driver John Hunter Nemechek. Speaking to Audacy, Inc., Combs described it as an "high-energy, high-octane" track that matched the film's vibe intentionally. The song debuted at number 24 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart week dated May 25, 2024.

Following "Ain't No Love in Oklahoma", a string of additional promotional singles were released leading up to the release of the soundtrack. "Hell or High Water" by Bailey Zimmerman was released next on May 23. "Never Left Me" by Megan Moroney was released on May 31; it was Moroney's maiden contribution for a film music project and felt that it was her idea to write about her childhood home, adding "It's about how you leave, but when you come back, nothing changes. It's still the place that made you." It was then subsequently followed by "Already Had It" by Tucker Wetmore on June 7, "Too Easy" by Tanner Adell on June 14, "Out of Oklahoma" by Lainey Wilson on June 20, "Song While You're Away" by Tyler Childers on June 28, "Feelin Country" by Thomas Rhett, "Steal My Thunder" by Smith featuring Wetmore on July 10, and "Ain't in Kansas Anymore" by Miranda Lambert on July 12. "Tear Us Apart" by Sam Barber, "Before I Do" by Wyatt Flores and Jake Kohn, "Stronger than a Storm" by Dylan Gossett, "Leave the Light On" by Jelly Roll featuring Alexandra Kay and "Dead End Road" by Jelly Roll were subsequently released during July 15–18, prior to the soundtrack's release. "Dead End Road" would be used as an official theme song for WWE's SummerSlam event in 2024.