#365songs (59 / 365)

I have a weird relationship to "Hamilton." I never cared for musicals before it, and I have never seen it performed, only listened to the cast recording, which I did many, many times over the period of maybe two or three years. And then I abruptly lost interest in it entirely in like 2019 or something and have not listened to it at all since then.

I still regard it with about 75% fondness and 25% cringe even if I don't really want to listen to it anymore. It did not spark interest in any other musicals for me. And though it was the surprising juxtaposition of rap with a Founding Fathers story that sparked my interest, the best song in Hamilton is "Wait For It," which includes no rapping at all.

"Wait For It" is the best song because it has all the best parts of what Lin-Manuel Miranda brings to the table and few of the bad ones. Miranda can, like many of my guilty pleasures and problematic faves (and, to be honest, me myself), be a little precious and too in love with his own cleverness, but not in "Wait For It," which is a little verbose (but hey, it's a sung-through musical) for the pop song it wants to be (and almost is) but still has a killer vocal hook or three. The cleverness comes through in Miranda's deft way of reusing a phrase in a way that gives it another layer of meaning: he does it with "throwing away my shot" and "never be satisfied" elsewhere in Hamilton and he does it here with "takes and... takes and.. takes." The melodies, throughout, are beautiful. And Leslie Odom, Jr. is a fantastic singer, one of the original cast's best.