The Beef season two soundtrack will be released parallel to the show’s premiere next week, A24 music announced Thursday.
The soundtrack for the Emmy Award-winning series, created by Lee Sung Jin, was written, produced and composed by Grammy and Oscar Award-winning composer Finneas. “Vicious Thoughts,” the trippy lead track, was released ahead of the April 16 album release.
Finneas says he’d been telling everyone that he’d be taking a break from scoring, but immediately said yes when his agent brought Beef season two his way. “Sonny (Lee) and I started talking about this season. I started reading scripts and he started sending me songs,” Finneas tells The Hollywood Reporter of the process creating the score.
“I would go visit set, and I would read the new scripts. I would sit around and tinker and make stuff, and one night I just made this piece that is ‘Vicious Thoughts,” he continues.
“There’s such a violent synth patch at the end, but it’s a beautiful melody [and] it’s played so sort of bombastically. I remember thinking, ‘This is either going to get me fired, or we’re going to really agree on it,’” he jokes. “We had that piece going into making the music for the whole season.”
For Beef season two, gone are the parking lot feuds, instead the season takes place at a country club decorated by a star-studded main cast including Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny.
“Finneas is the brilliant mind behind most of the music that has soundtracked my personal life over the
last decade, so it’s an absolute honor to collaborate with him on the new season,” Lee said in a release. “He has an incredible ability to make the darkest emotions sound so achingly beautiful, and I cannot wait for everyone to hear what he’s cooked up.”
The new season follows “a Gen Z couple [who] witnesses an alarming fight between their Millennial boss and his wife,” according to the season’s synopsis. “Newly-engaged Ashley Miller (Spaeny) and Austin Davis (Melton), both lower-level staff at a country club, become entangled in the unraveling marriage of their general manager, Joshua Martín (Isaac), and his wife, Lindsay Crane-Martín (Carey Mulligan).”
Seoyeon Jang rounds out the season’s list of series regulars. Award-winning Korean actors Youn Yuh-jung and Song Kang-ho will also star alongside William Fichtner, Mikaela Hoover, Matthew Kim, known by his K-pop stage name, BM.
“Through favors and coercion, both couples vie for the approval of the elitist club’s billionaire owner, Chairwoman Park (Youn), who struggles to manage her own scandal involving her second husband, Doctor Kim (Song),” the synopsis finishes.
Beef, hailing from A24, is created, showran and executive produced by Lee. Jake Schreier, Yeun, Wong, Mulligan, Isaac, Melton, Spaeny, Anna Moench, Kitao Sakurai and Ethan Kuperberg serve as executive producers for season two. The eight-episode season drops on Netflix on April 16. “Vicious Thoughts” is currently available on streaming.