Music is one of my go-to sources of comfort in trying times, and The Hamilton Mixtape seems to have arrived just in time for all of us. You can still pre-order the full album online if you know you want it, but until then, there are four songs total that are available to stream from the album on Spotify. The first two songs to come out were “My Shot” covered by the Roots with Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz & Nate Ruess, and Kelly Clarkson’s cover of “It’s Quiet Uptown.” You can listen to those first two tracks here.
To explain the project, in brief, for those unfamiliar: it’s an album that features musicians covering songs from the musical Hamilton, but many of the covers include new lyrics or different spins on the songs. You can already listen to the entire original Hamilton soundtrack recorded by the original stars of the show for free on Spotify, but this album will sound quite different and is therefore recommended for folks who are already familiar with the original. It’s the same songs, but with completely different orchestration and instrumentation, and, in some cases, completely different and completely new lyrics that are about present day struggles.
Some of the participants have stuck largely to covering the songs as-is. For example, Kelly Clarkson’s “It’s Quiet Uptown” is essentially just a recreation of the original song, but with different instrumentation (and herself singing the lead vocals, of course). Similarly, one of today’s new songs–a cover of “Satisfied” by Sia, also featuring Miguel and Queen Latifah–is essentially a one-to-one recreation of the original, but Queen Latifah hops in on one of the verses, while Sia does the bulk of the leads. Meanwhile, Miguel sings the role of Alexander Hamilton. Have a listen:
By contrast, the other new song today–a cover of “Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)” by K’NAAN, Snow Tha Product, Riz MC, and Residente–has new verses, and also includes samples from the original song. The verse by Residente, who hails from Puerto Rico, is entirely in Spanish. It makes for a particularly timely listen this week.
All four songs should pop up for you on Spotify if you search for them. They’re all singles, so that’s why I’m linking to individual tracks here rather than an album. You’ll have to search for the songs individually. But they’re there–so go enjoy and add them to your personal playlists.
(via Vulture, image via iFunny)
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