The Perfect Balance Of The Hamilton Mixtape

I was just in the mood to talk about this, that's it. We all love Hamilton and this is much like the month Hamildrops that came out monthly for a year's time, which was an added surprise. Seeing other artists take on Broadway songs and add a new style and flare while keeping the themes of what made the songs great. Only holding on to some of the lyrics or the chorus but then adding new lyrics and stories around these well-known songs. Harkening back to days when Broadway hits would be performed by popular musicians outside of the theaters and even with some slight changes, and has been here and there such as the Sara Bareilles Waitress album or Owl City performing "Waving Through A Window", but not as common of an act as it once was. So I wanted to dive into this and see what made this mixtape truly something worth listening to, and why it works on levels for theather fans and music enjoyers at the same time. The Hamildrops will have their time to shine another day in another post, for today I am going to focus on just the Hamilton Mixtape. 

For the musical enjoyers, it has demos of early songs that didn't make it into the final show from the rough drafts of the long process the show underwent, but also cut songs. That alone is worth preserving to get a peek into pieces of the show that didn't end up making the cut but were originally there. 

The remixes are amazing when "My Shot" greets the listener right after the intro, showing what this album is made of. Showing plenty of remixes that stand on their own, building off of a chorus or lyric to make something new. Singing about immigration, struggles, creating, working hard, and many other themes that make for great inspiration and a great listen. Hearing some of the songs as covers is also great to hear different musicians takes on the songs we love from the show even with multiple artists on one song.

The different instrumentals show how the lyrics can even fit into different styles, how the instruments in "Satisfied" or "It's Quite Up Town" sometimes the song stay the same or make only slight changes to fit a broader topic or audience like in "Wait For It".  So on top of cut songs which are a cool piece of history to have in this historical musical mixtape, there are also covers and remixes. So many of the songs also just flow into each other so well that you hear pieces of the previous song as it flows into the next, which is one of the reasons why I rarely put this on shuffle. 

Sometimes songs can be slowed down to change their style entirely or change a lyric of two. 

My favorites and go-to listens are always "My Shot", "Wrote My Way Out", "Congratulations",  "Immigrants We Get The Job Done", "It's Quiet Up Town", "Burn" and "Who Tells Your Story" with only one song in the album that I skip "You'll Be Back" and often comedic and amazing song in the show is ruined by Jimmy Fallon, yes some of this is due to me thinking he is not funny already but it just doesn't work. There are so many songs that have so much heart in this album whether it is performing the song in a new way or adding something with pieces of something great to make some just as great in a new way, then there's this. It is just him being goofy and I feel like anyone else could have captured the comedy and charm of the song while still making it fun without being this obnoxious. Every other piece of music presented here is great. 

Overall this is one of my favorites to pop in every once in a while, when writing, running errands, or just relaxing, this album is a must even for new Hamilton fans who caught it on Disney Plus due to the word of mouth and the pro shot, this is simply amazing. I love going to this for creative inspiration and to just unwind, it is an album packed with variety and all the songs but one is worth your time. Seeing songs that did not make it in, seeing new takes, and whole new songs, this album has a bit of everything.