Hamilton

I have never attended a performance of Hamilton, but I have seen the recorded LMM performance on Disney+. I've also performed a medley of the songs in my community concert band. I fucking hate this shitty musical and it's talentless one-note hackey faux-rap schtick. I hate how this entire musical glosses over one of history's great assholes because LMM didn't actually read a history book. I hate how centrist liberals love this musical because of representation or whatever when in fact the real Alexander Hamilton was the embodiment of the opposite of the ideals they profess to love. Look, I love a lot of musicals. I don't hate musicals. I love a ton of hip hop. I don't hate hip hop. I even like some of LMM's other projects (the songs from Moana, to name one). My unmitigated hatred for Hamilton is not borne out of any sort of blanket prejudice of any of its facets. It is borne out of thinking that these songs are dogshit.

putting a musical as an album here is such a dick move. This now is the first of 1233 I have actually skipped. Every single one I've given a chance up till now. I'm not listening to the music from a musical I haven't seen. I don't have much interest in musicals but there's a chance I might one day go see it and this would spoil the story, so I'm not going to listen to this. I'm quite annoyed at whoever submitted this.

I respect the fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda has written all music and lyrics of the musical and also plays the main role. Too bad not all of the music is great. His singing is ok, but the rap parts... As another reviewer states: "talentless one-note hackey faux-rap schtick" Another issue is that a musical is created for a stage with acting and visuals. It is not only the music. So an album containing a musical is missing several of the dimensions of a musical. At this moment a story that glorifies the American founding fathers and the consitution and democracy they created sounds misplaced. As have these stories about the USA have allways been. Praising the "democratic" history of a country grounded on wiping out the complete native population.

I dunked on Phantom of the Opera and even though I liked Hamilton I think I have to dunk on it too as a too long listening experience

Show tunes - not for me.

Yes, the cast is inclusive, the vocals rap-focused, and the arrangements done impeccably well. Yet, at the end of the day, Hamilton is just another entry into the long canon of American Exceptionalism – conflicts are resolved by the end of the song, moral failings swept aside as quickly as they’re introduced, and America stands victorious once again as the moral is wrapped up with a nice neat little bow for you to easily digest. I’ll never mentally unlink the Hamilton summer of ‘16 from Trump’s election the following fall, a story of our Founding Fathers in popularized, sound-bite form preceding the utter shitshow free fall we find ourselves in now. This musical continues to fill seats for who knows how much money and lecture its audiences about American greatness as the experiment collapses around us – the whole project rings hollow as a result, and no matter Miranda’s intentions feels like a symptom of our sickness rather than an exaltation of the nation’s triumphs.

https://youtu.be/6gGwhSE0nvo First time listening to the original musical. I remember how big this was but as a non-American, I was completely indifferent to their history. Now a decade later, this musical comes off as very quaint and naive. We've seen the complete failure of the American institutions and it makes the founding fathers look like naive fools. This musical comes from a different time that has since passed in America and isn't coming back for a long time. Also should we including musicals on the OG list? There are so many musicals that could be included. I'm hesistant. Musically though, it's great, although it is too long because it is literally the full musical. The Weird Al polka version gets all the highlights and is more fun. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Musical. Interesante mezcla. Me ha gustado. Un 4.

Type of suggestion to make me remember that I have free will and nothing is actually forcing me to slog through 46 songs of a shitty Broadway musical I have no interest in.

This is such a great recording of a great musical! Always up for some more musical theater representation and this is an EXCELLENT choice! It is one of those times when I was one of the last to see this and it completely lived up to expectations. Terrific!

My gf’s favourite

Another show I’ve never seen, but given how big this was I’m a bit more familiar with the songs. I think given the modern take this is one that’s maybe worth y of the list if you are wanting to include musicals, totally understand everyone who votes it lower because it is a musical.

Already said it once. This is not an album. It's an audio only musical. So a few minus stars for that. On the other hand, the story is kinda followable. And the music is catchy.

You Bastards, I had made it this far without hearing more than the odd fragment of this damn thing. I'll freely admit that I instinctively tend to indiscriminately reject these cultural phenomena that everybody loses it over, and I don'tview this as a virtue. The modern musical is not really my genre, and top of that an assignment of almost two and a half hours is a pretty ballsy decision in choosing a contribution to this list. So I went into this with definitely but generally genial animus. And while I can see the charms, I did find the whole thing pretty silly. As history it has a real Schoolhouse Rock vibe and the point is pretty obviously to make it all about human personality drama. As rap it is very evidently the product of theater-kid type uber-nerds and gets regularly mired in long, monotonous exposition dumps. I didn't hate it I guess.

Refused to listen. Not my shit.

My top 3 favorite reviews about this suggestion: First favorite review: the 1/5 one roasting *Hamilton* as "just another entry into the long canon of American Exceptionalism". The sentiment expressed in that review is exceedingly well-phrased. For me, whoever enjoys this high school glee club project overblown to stupidly bloated proportions is so naive that I just can't help laughing at their faces. Politically speaking, this project is simply ridiculous, maybe even counterproductive regarding the values it seemingly wants to promote. The contextual tidbit in that review mentioning that the "*Hamilton* summer" ironically gave way to the first election of Trump in the POTUS office, and describing all this as a twofold symptom of everything that's wrong about America, is especially convincing. See also the huge streaming numbers for the album version of this musical, which seem to infer there are still a lot of clueless people in the US right now. Second favorite take in this section: That other 1/5 review lambasting *Hamilton* as "one-note hackey faux-rap schtick". I'm still amazed that clipping's Daveed Diggs took part in this project as an original cast member, by the way. Interestingly, Diggs once joked that when he first heard the pitch (“a rap musical about Alexander Hamilton”), he thought it sounded like “a terrible idea,” and immediately wanted to do it. Translation: a man's gotta eat, you know. More power to Diggs making friends with the other cast members, and even meeting his current partner through the experience. But I suspect performing those ridiculous, heavyhanded rap tunes boringly discussing the finer points of economic treaties and focusing on old political party infighting no one really gives a f*ck about now, while praising a figure that would make capitalism the main goal of the young US democracy -- and doing this on a daily basis to boot! -- kind of gives you a strong incentive to also perform gritty horror-rap tracks on the side -- tracks often indirectly evoking the sad state of said capitalistic democracy two centuries later. As, you know, a way to tip the karmic balance the other way. Or simply cleanse your dirtied soul. Third favorite review, here written in full: "My gf’s favourite. 3/5" This last one made me laugh so much! But all laughs aside, my heart goes out to the person who wrote this. Your diplomatic spirit honors you, anonymous reviewer! And please, send my regards to your better half -- probably better in many things, *except* for her taste in music, ha ha. Indeed, on a purely musical standpoint this time around, everything that's horrible in musicals -- whether sung or rapped -- is exemplified through *Hamilton*. The long-winded, explanation-heavy narrative conceit stifling or exhausting the dynamic potentialities of the music... The streamlined and soulless nature of the recording and instrumentation... The over-the-top, performative expression required by such librettos... The mandatory reliance on visuals and choreography to make the whole thing somewhat digestible... Just like most live albums, I don't think musicals should even be considered for a list like this one, which almost led me to dismiss that choice as "non-pertinent". But this particular example is so ridiculous that I actually rejoice giving it a 1/5 grade as well. Guess I'm lucky having a partner who doesn't give a rat's ass about musicals herself, lol. So yeah, I, for one, will refrain from using diplomatic terms to discuss *Hamilton*. If only because the person who selected it gave a 1/5 grade to John Coltrane's *A Love Supreme*. Here's their full review about Coltrane's masterpiece, by the way: "Sure, it’s genius. Doesn’t mean I have to like it." OK. We're all playing a totally subjective game here, so I can't argue with you... I could point out that the transcendent spirituality expressed in *A Love Supreme* will do a better job joining people of all stripes in the world long-term than the limp and complacent "liberal" project that *Hamilton* is, bound to quickly turn irrelevant within the marketing fashion cycles of the mainstream music industry. But if you can't "feel" that spirituality within Coltrane's opus, you can't feel it. And no words of mine will ever change that sad state of affairs. Yet whatever your opinion about *A Love Supreme* is, here's my own subjective take about your choice for the users' list (and please note how inspired by your short review that take is): "Sure, it’s awkward, heavyhanded, politically dubious, and it has aged horribly in only ten years. Which *logically* means I don't have to like it." Have a swell time exploring the rest of the original list. Believe it or not, I mean that sincerely. 1/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums. 6/10 for more general purposes (5/5 for the musicianship and technical / literary values required for musicals + 1/5 for the artistry and (unfortunate) cultural impact) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 100 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 113 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 238 (including this one) ---- Hey Émile, j'ai répondu sous Demon Days ET ta sélection pour la users list ! 🙂

It takes some time to get used to the style I think. (Heard it so many times before), but it really is worth it. 5

Adding a 2 + 1/2 hour long musical to this list is definitely a risk. I love rap music and history so when this came out, I enjoyed it casually. As with the normal list, I don't think this or soundtracks work well on here. There is a visual context that is missing. 4/5 for the music, but I don't think it belongs on the list.

Awesome!

Lin-Manuel Miranda's second-best performance. His best, of course, being when, pre-mainstream fame, he guest starred as House’s annoying roommate in the psych ward (https://youtu.be/gwk6SPZOMy8?t=77&si=Ypoe1c9mgVRucDbA) I mean I'm making fun of him with that, but also, god, *nobody* is capable of being normal about Hamilton. The theater kids (not normal) ate extremely good and extremely loud on this for two solid years, then Trump won the 2016 election and it's like everyone else agreed to make this thing the face of the Dems' failure and to hound the theater kids for the rest of eternity about it. Just the most obvious scapegoating from people panicked that the wheels were coming off. Now, some of this association was self-inflicted by LMM trying to be an Inspiring Public Figure during this era, doing things like ineffectually calling out Mike Pence when he attended a performance, the stupid tweets book, etc, but America's problems (including centrist liberalism's shortcomings) predate this & run deeper than Broadway's sinister influence. Anyway, I came super late to this after trying to ignore the hype for a couple years. I eventually listened to the cast recording during a long road trip, and felt like it was pretty alright. I liked the cast, most of the centerpiece songs were landing, and politically...eh it's more willing to depict these guys as unlikable assholes than 1776 was, we can call that progress. The repeated invocation of how Hamilton was an "immigrant" like that aspect of him has much in common with non-white immigrants' experience in 2010s America was extremely goofy. I could definitely understand why the musical theater likers were having a good time, but I was mystified that this became the smash hit that it did. Still am. Most answers I got from the Broadway people in my life were along the lines that it brought rap to Broadway and had an uncommonly diverse cast, which for 2015 is more an indictment of Broadway than anything else. I'm gonna rate this on the high side (round up the 3.5, let's say), mainly because it makes sense to me to grade this on the curve of Musicals, rather than Hip Hop. I think a lot of people are too quick to ding the musical soundtracks on here for being what they are, and Hamilton in particular carries a lot of cultural gravity that I think is interesting and worthwhile to revisit 10+ years later

Rating: 6/10

Meh

No doubting the cleverness of the conception and the word play and one's daughter loves it, but don't think it suits this exercise. If there was an n/a button here, one'd push it.

A long album but a great listen.

It was ok but without seeing the musical you don’t know what’s going on and just listening to the soundtrack does nothing for me.

I liked "Phantom of the Opera" being on here, but I'm less sure about this. I mean it's great, and obviously a really important and totally unexpected musical, combining the tropes of the form with hip-hop songwriting. But I've never seen it. Listening to the audio alone is kind of like reading the Wikipedia plot summary and getting all the spoilers. I guess if you've seen the musical this will mean a lot to you, but I'm not sure it belongs on here.