As fans of the quirky sci-fi series “Stranger Things” await the new season’s premiere next week, a peculiar new album release could help tide them over.
Singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson has whipped up an entire album inspired by the Netflix show. “Stranger Songs,” out Friday, features 11 tracks, with an emphasis on ’80s synth-pop, that subtly detail moments and abstract concepts from the show.
The idea came to Michaelson after she wrote a poem about the character Joyce (Winona Ryder) talking to her son in the Upside Down, an alternate dimension, through Christmas lights. She realized the plot point also made for a beautiful metaphor about missing someone who has passed.
“I thought to myself, ‘Maybe I should write an album, intertwining the things that happened on the show and how it also sort of runs along my life,’ ” Michaelson, 39, tells The Post. “It just started as this little seed.”
Michaelson — who hails from Staten Island and broke big back in 2007 with her folk hit, “The Way I Am” — says every song had to work on two levels, so as to make sense for fans of the show, as well as those who have never queued it up.
“People who watch the show can listen to the songs and figure out, ‘Oh, that’s that,’ or have little theories,” says Michaelson. “[But] I don’t want to alienate people who have been listening to my music for 10 years.”
As such, no characters are name-dropped on the album, but their presence is undoubtedly felt. The single “Jealous,” for example, channels Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) emotions after seeing her crush with another girl, while “Freak Show” is an anthem for the series’ outcasts. Even gone-too-soon Barb (Shannon Purser) gets her due in “Best Friend.”
Each song, says Michaelson, “can be seen one way, then another.” But that’s how music is anyway. You take it and you make it about your life, usually.”
Michaelson hasn’t seen any of the show’s third season — it debuts July 4 — but she was filled in on a few spoiler-free details from her boyfriend Will Chase, who plays the, thus far, small role of Neil Hargrove, the father of Billy (Dacre Montgomery).
Despite that connection, there’s no track on “Stranger Songs” dedicated to Chase’s character.
“But he wishes there was,” says Michaelson, laughing. “He goes, ‘Why aren’t you writing one about Billy’s dad?’ I was like, ‘Because he’s a dou - - - bag! I don’t want to give him any energy!’ ”
