Euphoria has taken the internet by storm with its recent season, as demonstrated by the exponential growth of its virality on TikTok and its season 2 finale hitting a viewership of 6.6 million individuals across its streaming platforms. 

Known for its vibrant cinematography and glamorous art direction, this season also showcased its larger-than-life characters with greater emotional nuances as compared to the first season, with incredible craft from the cast and crew alike. 

The HBO Max series, created by Sam Levinson, is an adrenaline-filled, euphoric perspective on youth and coming of age, with its slate of talented actors. The well-loved series was an immense pleasure to watch, as each character’s background was thoroughly explored and accompanied with a congruous playlist to match their highs and lows. 

With music supervision by Jen Malone, here are some of the highlights of the music of Euphoria Season 2. Spoilers to be expected! 

Steely Dan - ‘Dirty Work’ 

The new season kicks off with a deeper look into the upbringing and lives of brothers Fez (Angus Cloud) and Ashtray (Javon Walton), answering audiences’ questions about the well-received, drug-dealing pair from season 1. Shedding light on the siblings’ daily life, viewers were finally exposed to the high (pun not intended) stakes that the two had to go through to put food on the table each day. Malone’s choice for Steely Dan’s ‘Dirty Work’ perfectly conveys the duo’s tight situation with the song telling of a reluctant but obedient booty call who comes ‘runnin’’ at their lover’s beckoning. The song’s helpless, no-way-out situation parallels Fez and Ashtray being similarly stuck between a rock and a hard place — between crime and the illusion of social mobility. 

Judy Garland - ‘Come Rain Or Come Shine’ 

Maddy’s (Alexa Demie) character received more love than ever before this season for her strong and upfront personality as well as the sensitivity and fierce loyalty she continues to have for her friends and loved ones. As the description of her goes from the first season, Maddy is an individual that has her background in child pageantry, growing up loved and adored in the center of attention. In her episode 2 montage, we see her enjoying playing dress-up at her employer’s luxurious home while they are out. ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’ plays in the background of this sequence, almost as if she is imagining a worshipping audience affirming their eternal adoration for her, complementing her dream to be loved and desired. The song choice is so apt as it could even be associated with Maddy’s love for material things, telling these gorgeous pieces of clothes and jewellery that she will “be with them” whether she’s “in or.. out of money”. 

Laura Les - ‘Haunted’

Possibly questionable if Malone’s musical decision here was truly the best song to represent the resident wallflower of the cast to many, Laura Les’s ‘Haunted’ comes at the end of Rue (Zendaya)’s voiceover talking about Lexi (Maude Apatow) and her seeming fate of being at the forefront of every situation yet constantly being powerless to do anything to change it. As Lexi pedals away on her bike, the pitched, almost 8-bit-like playful melody juxtaposes the lyrics singing “Do you think I'm frightening?” and “Mirrors shatter when I’m passing”. This juxtaposition encapsulates the complexity of the young character who is at the edge of making a lasting impact on the entire cast like never before (Episode 7 & 8, period.) yet struggling with her inferiority of feeling insignificant. 

INXS - ‘Never Tear Us Apart’

In a revealing backstory slightly under 15 minutes, audiences were brought in to Cal (Eric Dane) and his own high school experience. The sequence established his journey from pushing aside feelings for his best friend, Derek, played by Henry Eikenberry, to pursuing them, as the pair are shown slow-dancing and kissing in a bar after their graduation. As they relish in their open affection for one another, INXS’s ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ fittingly plays in the background. The sentimental, synth-based track is the cherry on top of the whole scene as it elevates the passion of their romance as viewers witness the moment where it is finally budding. 

The lyrics “Two worlds collided, and they could never tear us apart” zooms in on the non-verbal promise of the young lovers that they would never leave each other. Hence, making it all the more heartbreaking when the same guitar riff plays while young Cal (Elias Kacavas) discovers the pregnancy of his girlfriend. The love anthem is reused but this time, not as a faithful pledge of love but instead, as a promise never to be fulfilled and the guilt of the ‘What ifs' that would never be ‘torn apart’ from him. 

Sharon Cash - ‘Fever’

Episode 5, dubbed the “Rue-tervention” chronicles the build-up of Rue’s fall down the rabbit hole into drug abuse paying off in an explosive climax, was truly one of the most dramatic episodes ever seen to grace television. Coupled with Sharon’s Cash’s rendition of Little Willie John’s ‘Fever’, we see Malone’s mastery of using music to add to the story’s depth. As Zendaya’s character scrambles to rob a safe with wads of money stowed in it before the homeowners return, Cash croons away about an all-consuming love that gives her ‘fever’, coinciding with the manic addict’s blind obsession and craving for narcotics that is bound to devour her entirely.

Mazzy Star - 'Quiet, The Winter Harbour' 

The internet’s favourite couple to hate, Nate (Jacob Elordi) and Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), find themselves the only two people on their side in episode 6. As Nate invites Cassie to stay with him after the news of their love affair was exposed by Rue in the previous episode, ‘Quiet, The Winter Harbour’ is heard as the door behind them is closed and they’re finally alone (both literally and not) after the hectic day that they both had. The soft tune by Mazzy Star accompanied by the lyrics, ”Save me, ‘cause I’m still sinking, and you’ve got a harbour, close to shore” parallels how Nate and Cassie have officially shut the world out, leaving them as the only two people who have the other. 

Bonnie Tyler - ‘Holding Out for a Hero”

Should we applaud Lexi or Malone for this intuitive use of ‘Holding Out for a Hero’ to express the toxic masculinity of Nate Jacobs? As the track blasts Bonnie Tyler’s powerful vocals where she sings about desiring a “white knight upon a fiery steed”, audiences both in and out of the television programme watch as Ethan (Austin Abrams), playing Nate in Lexi’s play, dances around a locker room set with a dozen other half-naked actors, implying exactly what you think that would imply. The dance moves revolve interchangeably among sexual positions and self-glorifying gestures to the beat of the classic Tyler song. By the use of this particular track, the overcompensation that Nate’s character invests into the portrayal of his masculinity is at the same time mocked ironically with the promiscuous dance number and for that, we pay our compliments to both Lexi and Malone for being real G’s. 

Stream the songs of Euphoria Season 2 here: