Labrinth: The Genius Behind America's Favorite score
“When you look back to your teenage days, it feels semi-magical but semi-crazy and semi-psychotic. I want to make sure the music felt like those things.”
- Labrinth in an interview with The Rolling Stone
It is rare to encounter a single piece of music with the capability of capturing the hauntingly beautiful, yet painfully chaotic essence of Sam Levinson’s Euphoria. Between the complex characters, stunning cinematography, and rollercoaster ride of a plotline, it’s hard to imagine a score that could match the brilliance of the series. However, Timothy Lee Mckenzie, or “Labrinth” as we know him, was able to compose and compile twenty-six stunning tracks that do just that.
Back in 2019, season one of HBO’s Euphoria took America by storm with its bold depictions of addiction, abuse, and struggles with sexuality, while also maintaining the typical drama and insecurities that come with being a high school student. While the show predominantly follows Rue Bennett, a 17 year old drug addict, it also focuses on the lives and relationships of Rue’s peers, such as Jules Vaughn, Cassie and Lexi Howard, Nate Jacobs, and Maddy Perez. As each character and episode offers a uniquely complex sequence of events and range of emotions, it is only reasonable to assume that the music behind it would be just as elaborate. With a combination of various genres and stylistic choices, this level of intricacy is exactly what Labrinth was able to achieve with the music for Euphoria.
Two stand-outs in the original score for Euphoria’s first season are “Forever” and “Nate Growing Up”. “Forever” is fascinating in the way that Labrinth manages to capture a very specific feeling with the repetition of only one line throughout the entire song: “I’ll live forever”. Not only are these the only words in the song, but they are also produced in a rather distorted fashion, leaving the listener to question the song's true message. With a backtrack of various minor piano chords, drum beats, and an almost choral harmony of voices behind Labrinth’s single line, this haunting piece delivers a sense of infinite reality while simultaneously perpetuating the feeling of being trapped in the repeating loop of the lyrics. In stark contrast to this is “Nate Growing Up”, which premiered in the second episode of Euphoria’s first season during a sequence of Nate Jacobs’ journey to adulthood. Between the abrupt beginning of an aggressive male harmony and the eventual transition into a disorderly techno beat, Labrinth’s stylistic choices here are clear. The song is both angry and chaotic, perfectly encompassing the internal conflict of a teenager struggling not only with his sexuality, but also his identity as a whole. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Labrinth described his thought process in musically capturing the identity of these characters, explaining how he drew inspiration from the insecurity, fear, and general confusion of his own teen years. He also touches on the idea of the “bubble” that teens live within, and how their entire existence can feel tied to such trivial experiences. While “Forever” and “Nate Growing Up” are just two examples of Labrinth’s uncanny ability to capture emotion and character identity through song, this kind of depth and attention to detail can be found throughout the entire soundtrack.
Despite the fact that it is not listed under the 26 original tracks of Euphoria’s score, Labrinth and Zendaya’s “All for Us” is arguably one of the most successful songs to come out of the entire series. Using the same combination of techno, hip hop, and gospel music that characterizes so many of Labrinth’s songs for the series, “All for Us” takes more of a storytelling approach, appearing to come from Rue Bennett’s point of view as she struggles with the burden of taking care of her family while battling addiction. As the sole writer of “All for Us”, Labrinth fills the song with lyrics capturing the hopeless perspective of a burdened Rue, producing lines such as “Dreamers are selfish when it all comes down to it”, and “Daddy ain’t at home, no, gotta be a man”. In a song that barely exceeds 3 minutes, he is able to depict Rue’s pain perfectly, conveying to listeners that she is mentally and physically exhausted from the world in which she is living.
After hearing songs that appear to be almost perfectly molded to each specific character and experience depicted in Euphoria, it is hard to imagine anyone besides Labrinth producing the music for the series. Whether it be Nate’s internal conflict, Rue and Jules’ rocky relationship, or Cassie’s insecurity, Labrinth has a song that is perfectly catered to each detail of the characters, effectively capturing the magical, yet painful chaos of what it is like to be a teenager.
Written by: Emma Ehle, Photography: Savannah Patterson, Design: Sarah Szymeczek, Social Media: Marlee Dockery