Euphoria (Hans Zimmer)
What is it?
The wildly celebrated HBO TV series Euphoria, about drug-addicted teenager Rue (Zendaya) who tries to navigate high school, young adulthood and various sub cultures, quickly became an international phenomenon; a reference point for the young generation. It also provided career breakthroughs for now-superstars Zendaya and Sydney Sweeney. The third and final season dropped on April 26, 2026.
Based on an Israeli series, but mostly the brain child of director Sam Levinson (Barry Levinson’s son, for the older folks among us), it’s a super-stylized affair that – especially in season two – plays around with film references in its succulent mise-en-scène, including delightful nods to Brian de Palma, David Lynch, Wong Kar-wai, Paul Schrader and Gaspar Noé.
While the series consistently used existing songs and tracks (even from other film scores, like John Williams’ The Fury, Alex North’s Spartacus and Pino Donaggio’s Don’t Look Now), its main musical identity was provided by British composer Labrinth in the first two seasons, mostly centered on mysterious, ambient electronic and vocal textures with a pop infusion.
For the third and final season, however, the producers called on the biggest film composer on the planet, Hans Zimmer, to work alongside Labrinth. Eventually, the original British composer withdrew all his music from the season, in unfortunate circumstances that are not yet clear. What remains, then, is the music of Hans Zimmer and his colleagues.
How is it?
Regardless of the circumstances surrounding Labrinth’s departure, it provided Zimmer with an opportunity to write a supremely inspired score. Given the show’s established musical vocabulary, one would perhaps expect an electronic-experimental approach, wherein Zimmer would be just as capable as Labrinth. But instead, one has opted for a more orchestral idiom. Or rather, it’s a very eclectic work encompassing references both to his earlier work, and other composers’ styles – much in line with the show’s own ideology.
The album starts off as if it were an Italian spaghetti western («Agua Dulce») – ripe with twangy, gravelly bass and open chord leaps, before segueing into spiritual, Interstellar-like minimalism in «Ten Percent». So already from the first two tracks, the disparate nature is on display.
Along the way, you’ll find nods to other composers, like the suave, Donaggio-esque «Aperol Spritz», the Wojciech Kilar-like vocalise of «Keep Me Company» or the growling brass of «Unleashed», as if it were Akira Ifukube’s Godzilla.
But the essence of it all, beyond the outside references, is Zimmer channeling elements of his melodic, light drama writing from the past, through a broader, more modern lens, often via repetitive figures and even organ – it’s big and lyrical. This is evident in tracks such as «The Long Road», «Dress Sexy» (these also nod to the calypso stylings of True Romance), «Window of Opportunity» or «Follow Her Dreams».
At the heart of it all – placed appropriately in the middle of the album – are some drop dead gorgeous choral/vocal cues, as in «Just the Facts» or the 9-minute, religioso powerhouse «Rue Romance» – the emotional centerpiece of the whole album. For these tracks, Zimmer digs up his inner Franz Schubert, not shying away from extreme, delightful consonance.
While this might sound too eclectic for its own good, the album somehow comes together as one organic piece, beautifully curated at 67 minutes. The ebb and flow between the small and intimate and large and operatic becomes the musical “nerve” throughout, much like the show itself.
This is Hans Zimmer’s best score since The Creator (2023), and although the latter boasts tracks that outshine anything here, it’s a more consistent affair. It’s the type of score you lay on the table when critics accuse him of being too dense or sound designy. This is about as melodic as it gets.
