#‘women’ is a good song tho. yea I’d loop that

[obstinaterixatrix]

the thing is, even when the songs were a different volume or tempo, the intensity felt the same to me which imo undercuts dynamism and impact over the soundtrack (maybe it feels more cohesive while actually watching the show). the style also felt a little generic pop overall (at one point I was like. that was very imagine dragons.) with some brief hints of personality (one song sounds very electroswing, one gets very blues, a couple… vaguely have an industrial theme, I did like the husband/paramour confrontation song). I stand by the initial assessment of it giving a very hamilton (derogatory) vibe. I think at one point there’s fraught relationship developments but the entire time I was thinking ‘why is this over a club-type beat. why is it party time’.

I’m not opposed to musicals having pop influences, but I don’t really think it particularly added to the overall musical. for example, Six having a very pop-ish score makes sense because it’s like an idol competition and there’s some pretty powerful contrast the show does with ‘king henry’s 6 wives’ and ‘mega modern costuming and music’. just from what the lyrics are like for this musical, there’s not a lot of emphasis on anachronism or completely making shit up and playing with historical figures like dolls. even with bloody bloody andrew jackson, basing the score in rock music was because the show was like ‘lmao he was like a rock star (also he kind of sucked maybe)’ so there’s some cohesion with the music genre and the show itself. also on a personal level I’m kinda disappointed there wasn’t a duet between women that ultra grabbed me. they were mostly singing solos about each other, though they were together for a break up song. and I liked the vibes ‘you stole my soul’ and ‘give back my life’ but listen. that’s less than half a song where they’re singing to each other. and by the end that was the song that made me go ‘why is this happening over some kinda trance beat. it kinda bops but it’s emotionally incoherent.’

anyway. I think this historical rpf musical falls into the common trap of trying to show off A Real Slice Of History (while taking artistic liberties) rather than really leaning into Playing With Real People Like Dolls (assassins, mincemeat, 1776, six). it was onto something by evoking an industrial sound for futurism/fascism, but that kinda thematic coherence didn’t really extend to the rest of the score which means it doesn’t really feel like the music had a strong identity, not even in terms of ‘a musical’ as a musical identity… it’s kinda on the same level as warpaint & zelda to me. though at least those ones had music that evoked the time period they took place in.