Favorite songs

[cahn]

I have... a whole lot of favorite songs.

If I really had to pick just one, I think maybe "Satified"; a) ANGELICA IS MY FAVORITE EVER, b) I really, really love the concept of going back and showing another POV and how that changes our understanding of what happened before; c) I love the whole "three fundamental truths at the exact same time" part. That WHOLE PART; and d) the reprise of "I know my own sister" is maybe my favorite single line in the entire thing and I totally teared up at that spot.

Cabinet Battle #1 is a favorite too, because he made the topic of assuming states' debts into a rap battle and it was awesome.

The one I've probably listened to the most times is "Guns and Ships," because it is so relentlessly brilliant and Lafayette is so irrepressibly AWESOME. "No one has more resilience / Or matches my practical tactical brilliance!!"

The one I think is my favorite devoid of context is "Wait For It," which I think is just a good *song* even if you didn't know anything about the rest of the play. Plus which, in context of the play, it succeeds in making me have ALL THE FEELS for Burr even though he's... Burr... and also the reprise of the "Wait for it" bits in the runup to the Reynolds Pamphlet is just brilliant.

The one that breaks my heart over and over again every time I listen to it is "It's Quiet Uptown," which I think is just the most amazing song in a musical full of amazing songs. Lin-Manuel Miranda just breaks my heart (both the writing and the singing -- what he does in singing this song is spectacular).

But they're all totally amazing and brilliant. This is maybe the only musical that I've ever listened to where I want to listen to all the songs, every time. (Well, not always the reprise of Stay Alive and It's Quiet Uptown, but more because I don't want to be reduced to a sobbing mess all the time.)

What's your favorite?

Comments

[owlectomy]

I haven't listened to the soundtrack enough to be SURE of my favorites, but I've broken down sobbing twice listening to "Non-Stop" because of "Hamilton wrote the other fifty-one!" and

"How do you write like tomorrow won’t arrive?
How do you write like you need it to survive?
How do you write ev’ry second you’re alive?"

It really hits close to where I live.

And I love "Satisfied," because yes Angelica is the best and I love how she is trying SO HARD to make a good decision and she cares so much about Eliza, and about Alexander, and... 'trying to make a good decision even when it hurts' is the thing that will always get me.

I do think that out of the musicals I've listened to enough to have a decided opinion, Hamilton is the one with the consistently best music -- even good musicals usually have a few boring songs and at least one outright bad song, and if Hamilton has any boring songs I haven't got bored of them yet.

[metonymy]

UNPOPULAR OPINION: my favorite is actually Burn! Possibly because that's the one that punched me in the chest and made me start silently weeping when I saw the show at the Public. But it's so beautiful, and the running theme underneath is so simple, and Phillipa Soo's delivery goes from wistful to hurt to righteous fury without missing a step, and it calls back to so many other themes - he writes like he's running out of time, Angelica sees right through him, Eliza has always hoped for the best from him and from their marriage, Alexander's vision doesn't always include her - and it's just. IT HAS A LOT. I FEEL A LOT.

ALTERNATELY: "Room Where It Happens," because a) Leslie Odom Jr. is a goddamned star and b) it manages to take a fairly obscure piece of history and make it funny, fascinating, and a huge turning point in our antagonist's motivations. Also it's CATCHY. And the lyrics are great.

But really, every song in the show is amazing. (Although I resent "Say No to This," but mostly because Alexander is an ASSHOLE.)