The SMH ran a list of the most significant albums of the first quarter of the new century. This was my contribution:
Original Broadway Cast Recording
(Warners)
9.5/10
Having launched his hip hop revolution of musical theatre with In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda dared to dream higher still. What better subject for a transformational musical than that key revolutionary, Alexander Hamilton? Miranda uses rap to solve a problem faced since recitative faded from operatic fashion: communicating swathes of story rapidly, without resort to dialogue (given that songs more efficiently communicate emotion). Rapping doesn’t just accelerate the dissemination, it lends the whole show momentum, and with Miranda brilliantly playing Hamilton, the performing matches the writing. His songs shame much new-century composing for musicals. My Shot has the anthemic “Rise up!” refrain, Helpless is an R&B classic, The Duel Commandments is frighteningly visceral and The Room Where it Happened is wickedly catchy. High art meets thrilling music as the rhymes, among the most dazzling since Byron, fly at you with the velocity of grapeshot from a cannon.