The second season of Apple TV+’s psychological thriller series Severance is under way, and fans can’t get enough of its earworm theme music.
- READ MORE: ‘Severance’ season two review: mind-bending workplace sci-fi is the smartest thing on TV
The first episode of the new run premiered on the streaming service on January 17, with new instalments arriving every Friday until its conclusion on March 21.
The show, which was created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, stars Adam Scott as Mark, an employee of Lumon Industries who consents to a “severance” program that separates his work and non-work memories. Christopher Walken, John Turturro and Patricia Arquette also star.
Apple’s synopsis for season two reads: “In Severance Mark Scout (Adam Scott) leads a team at Lumon Industries, whose employees have undergone a severance procedure, which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives.
“This daring experiment in ‘work-life balance’ is called into question as Mark finds himself at the centre of an unravelling mystery that will force him to confront the true nature of his work… and of himself. In season two, Mark and his friends learn the dire consequences of trifling with the severance barrier, leading them further down a path of woe.”
In a five-star review of the second season, NME said: “As things get all the more intriguing by the minute, Severance is a show best watched on high alert. For example, graffiti scrawled in the background reads “Who is alive?” By the time The Stone Roses’ ‘Love Spreads’ hits the soundtrack, with Ian Brown wailing “Let me put you in the picture / Let me show you what I mean”, you’ll be begging for the Severance team to do the same. Don’t stress it, though. Enjoy the ride and let this unique show tease and titillate your brain until you finally submit.”
What is the Severance main theme and where can I listen to it?
The eerie, minimal piano-based theme to Severance was composed by Theodore Shapiro, known for his work on films including Tropic Thunder, We’re The Millers, Spy and Starsky & Hutch.
Shapiro won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2022 for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for his music on the show – check out an extended mix of the theme song below. ‘Severance (Main Titles)’ is also available on all major music streaming platforms now.
The composer spoke to Slash Film in 2022 about his work on the show. “It actually had a serendipitous route to coming into being, which is when [Ben Stiller] and I started talking about the show, I just started writing themes,” he explained.
“I just started creating and sending him ideas to see what he would respond to. I knew that there was going to be some sort of an electronic component to the music. I wrote a piece that was largely electronic, and it had this middle section that he really liked. And so I made a mental note: Let’s try to expand on that idea.”
He continued: “It was based around four chords and I thought, ‘I wonder what would happen if I took those same four chords and just tried a different palette?’ I sat down at the piano and started playing the idea that ultimately became the theme. I sent it to Ben, and I didn’t hear anything for over a month and I was just like, ‘I guess he didn’t like that, but that’s too bad. It was a good idea.’
“Then one day he called, and he was like, ‘I was just listening to this stuff. And that piece is really great. That’s really exciting.’ And so immediately we just started honing in on that idea.”
The post What is the ‘Severance’ main theme and where can I listen to it? appeared first on NME.