You will have to bear with me a bit on this one – in thirty years of this website I think this is the first time I have written about music from a later season of a tv show when I haven’t previously written about the music from earlier seasons. And I haven’t seen the tv show. And I don’t really know much about it (most of the social media commentary about it centres around a certain bodily feature of a certain actor who appears in it).
Euphoria first aired in 2019 and its first two seasons featured original score by British record producer Labrinth. Online commentary suggests his music was eclectic and hypnotic, a kind of internal commentary on what was going on in the lead character’s head. With some fanfare, while the third season was in production the studio announced that none other than the most prominent film composer of his generation Hans Zimmer would be collaborating with Labrinth on the third season. (Zimmer has in the past been a frequent collaborator with showrunner Sam Levinson’s father Barry.)
I was imagining that this would most likely see Zimmer take up a somewhat supporting role, perhaps contributing a piece or an idea or two, perhaps some members of his team doing a little more than that; but fast forward to just before the release of the season and Labrinth rather angrily announced his departure, the world hears Hans Zimmer’s music in the show and now on the soundtrack album and discovers that far from being a supporting role, it’s a substantial piece of work and the album is one of his most satisfying in years.
Tonally it’s a very interesting one – several different styles are used, and while each is familiar in some way from the composer’s past works, the combination of them here is something new and intriguing. Somewhat surprisingly, this is predominantly an orchestral work, at times resembling the kind of music Zimmer has written for comedies (particularly those of James L. Brooks) over the years; but with plenty of other infusions to make it really rather distinctive. Some of the heavy drama could be from one of his post-Dune action scores; the rebellious youthful spirit from True Romance; the grand dramatic gestures from Hannibal. And throw in a bit of Schubert and a bit of Morricone and even a mighty Wurlitzer organ.
The album opens with “Agua Dulce”, an arrestingly grand piece of theatre, before the tonal shifts are immediately on display through the contrast of “Ten Percent”, an aching cello line underneath some sparkling female chorus. Then “The Long Road” – twinkly comedic undertones – and a cheerful, whistled version of “Ave Maria” – which suddenly disappears through an electronic plughole. Then a catchy piece with mystery and perhaps discovery at its heart – “Whole Fucking Endeavour” – before the more serious “Toxic Masculinity” with complex percussion patterns and some sounds which could come from The White Lotus. All that in the first ten minutes of the album – and somehow this disparate array of stylistic about-turns comes together.
It very much continues throughout the length of the album, which features highlights aplenty. There’s a sense of European glamour in the shimmering strings of “Aperol Spritz” – a real classical heft to “Window of Opportunity” (I’m too ignorant to know what it’s based on, but I’m sure it’s something!) – and then in “Dress Sexy”, a sound inspired by the famous Carl Orff “Gassenhauer” piece that Zimmer arranged for True Romance.
After its whistled version earlier, we get a (somewhat) more orthodox version of “Ave Maria” in “Opportunity” – it serves as one of the score’s primary recurring themes, in fact. If only I took this more seriously and had actually watched the show to make a token effort of sounding like I knew what I was talking about, I’d be able to tell you why.
There’s an almost operatic sense of drama to “Keep You Forever”, real pomp and circumstance – it’s so unlike most modern film (and tv) music with the way it seems to be deliberately creating a kind of soapy melodrama. The lengthy “Rue Romance” (nine minutes) brings together various different elements we’ve heard before, building in particular on the sound of “Opportunity” and while undoubtedly beautiful, the piece is also undoubtedly full of tragedy.
There’s even a big piece of action music – “Unleashed” could be from a grand, gothic horror movie score with its big brass gestures and occasional stingers. It goes huge. The following “Showtime” is not exactly a model of restraint either, gloriously paying homage to Ennio Morricone’s music to various big gundowns.
There are two more weighty, significant pieces of music to talk about. “Joshua Tree” is not the finale but it does carry a feeling of finality through it – the almost ecstatic combination of organ, choir and strings keeps building to a greater and greater frenzy, horns coming in later on – I can see this one becoming a real favourite. The actual finale is “Jerusalem Rd” which is a much more mellow piece – a calm survey of some of the main thematic material and a real emotional release (in between these two tracks comes some comparatively dark and desperate music).
Hans Zimmer continues to divide opinion after all these years (it is fair to say that longstanding Euphoria fans were not all delighted at the shift in musical direction for this season) but whatever you think of his music, at his heart he really is an old-fashioned showman. When he’s really on fire and inspired by something the results can be great and Euphoria Season Three is great. To bring together all these disparate elements, all these inspirations, and turn them into such a cohesive album experience must have really taken some doing – the entertainment that results is a complete joy. I think it’s an absolute knockout. Of course it won’t be for everyone (is anything?) but those who enjoy the more exuberant side of the composer’s musical personality will indeed be euphoric.
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